The Hermit, The Emperor, and Judgment
by TPKTheStoicTPK
Summary: Kuroko has faced numerous trials in search of her happy ending, but it seems like that ending is still a ways off. New foes loom on the horizon as challenges arise from all directions. Luckily she is not alone in her struggles. With good allies and better friends she faces off against the Final Judgment. 3rd and final part of my Final Judgment trilogy.
1. Chapter 1

とある幻の受け入れ

Toaru Maboroshi no Ukeire

A Certain Acceptance of Illusion

* * *

November 22nd, 7:18AM

Tokiwadai Exterior Dorms

Had things been different Misaka might have woken up this morning wondering if what had happened yesterday had been true. She might have thought that the depression was getting to her, might have thought that the reunion with the person she had been missing so much was nothing more than her imaginings.

But as things were there was little room for doubt in her mind. There was no way that she could imagine the soft warmth of her girlfriends body pressed against hers, legs and fingers intertwined as flesh pressed against flesh. There was no way the scent of lilies that rose from the younger girl's small body, still sweaty from yesterday's exertions, could possibly exist only in her mind. There was no way the quiet sound of soft breathing from her slumbering room mate was fake. There was no way the sweet taste of her lips was mere delusion as she kissed the girl good morning with as much fierceness and passion as she could muster.

And the sight that greeted her as she opened her eyes was too horrible for a dream and too good for a nightmare. Kuroko, laid almost bare beneath her with only a pair of panties to cover herself, was sleeping soundly. Her face peaceful and happy. But that was where the pleasant sights ended. As Misaka glanced down to her throat she saw a hole through her throat almost 2 inches in diameter right through her trachea, a spot that meant she shouldn't be able to breath at all. It glowed with a strange golden light that seemed to allow her to continue breathing and even talking.

Down lower a similar hole, even larger, was in her right shoulder and left collarbone, many small and even a few large holes also lined her arm, each filled with the golden light. More existed below, through the stomach, waist, hip, and legs. The largest one of all was through her heart where the golden light was strongest as well. The hole extended up to the top of the ventricles which no longer seemed to beat. Kuroko was down to a two beats, one for each atrium. The ventricles seemed to be completely non-operational, if not gone altogether. How the girl was alive she had no idea.

Misaka buried her head in the crook of Kuroko's neck, guilt washing over her like a flood. If she hadn't made that stupid decision to go after Touma then Kuroko wouldn't have felt so alone. If she had just held onto her tighter maybe she wouldn't have slipped away. If she had just done something differently at the windowless building then maybe Kuroko wouldn't have been hurt this badly.

A tear ran down Misaka's cheek, falling upon Kuroko's face. The younger girl had been crying so much back then, her face had been drenched in tears that seemed to be constantly shed. Now the only water other than the sweat upon the smaller girl's brow from last night's passion were the two drops of Misaka's tears.

A slight groan suddenly sounded from the girl, who seemed to have been roused by the impact of the salty water on her face. Her one visible eye twitched in anticipation of being opened while the other lay behind a veil of Kuroko's hair. As the pink orb fluttered open Misaka decided that she preferred the other hairstyle that let her gaze into both of her love's eyes. She reached her hand to brush aside the hair but Kuroko turned slightly so that the hand brushed her cheek instead. Then Misaka took the other cheek in her hands as well and lifted Kuroko's face up so she could kiss the girl's lips. She could feel the lips twitch into a smile before they molded themselves against the electro master's own.

The kiss deepened and got more passionate as Kuroko began to wake up. She moved from her position laying down into a sitting posture as the pair continued their frantic, passionate kiss.

The magic was, unfortunately, broken as Kuroko began to tug at Misaka's panties, causing her to break away from the kiss and frown at the girl, "for the last time, I'm not ready for that." she insisted, covering up her chest with an arm, "I already went this far for you isn't that enough."

"Hmm? Funny... I recall you being the one who seemed so eager to get me out of my clothes," Kuroko grinned as her hands continued rubbing at the skin under the waistband of the panties in a very distracting manner.

Misaka blushed and subconsciously lashed out with electricity. Kuroko didn't seem to mind all that much, but took it as a cue to stop her actions and move onto the far more innocent act of nuzzling Misaka's neck. Misaka cradled the teleporter's head and rubbed her hand up and down the other girl's back.

"Are you okay now?" Misaka asked for what was surprisingly the first time. Last night there had been too much emotion, too much want, too much need for such a question. But now things had had time to cool down and the electro master asked that question she knew she should have asked a while ago.

Her beloved girlfriend favored her with a raised eyebrow, or maybe two, she couldn't tell what the other one was doing. The message was clear but Kuroko still humored her with a verbal response as well. "I've been better... I could probably honestly say I've been worse as well... but either way it's fine, as long as I have you in my arms." The teleporter gave her love a gentle squeeze as she tightened their embrace.

"I didn't just mean physically, I meant mentally as well..." Misaka elaborated.

"Demasiada cordura puede ser la peor de las locuras, ver la vida como es y no como debería de ser," Was the younger girl's fairly nonsensical reply.

"Huh?"

"Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be," Kuroko translated, "It's a line from Don Quixote which I feel quite aptly describes my view on how things have turned out. You see... all this time I've been too focused on the bad. The delusions that caused me pain and despair. But I should have been focusing on the delusions that caused me love and happiness. Starting today I've decided that I'm going to choose the illusions of happiness and defend them with my life."

"This illusion talk again..." Misaka sighed, slightly disappointed, "you're still convinced this is a dream?"

"No... if this was a dream then those childish panties of your would be on the floor instead of on your person," Kuroko grinned.

Misaka giggled, the perversion actually charming after all this time. "Dream on," she retorted.

Kuroko joined in on the giggling.

The teleporter really should have waited another few days to recover in the hospital before returning, but she could not bear the thought of not seeing her Onee-sama for another three days. After having seen the state she was in she did not regret this decision in the slightest.

"Hey Kuroko... about us..." Misaka began, her voice very serious again.

"Yes?" Kuroko wasn't sure whether or not to be hopeful or despairing at that.

"My parents are coming to the city today... both of them... I'm going to tell them about us. I'm done hiding and being ashamed of this. From now on you're officially and publicly my girlfriend." The blush that colored the electro master's face at these words was only matched in hue by the most vividly colored strawberries, or by the blush that was on Kuroko's face at hearing them.

"Onee-sama..." she went back and stared deep into Misaka's eyes, then smiled a smile of such pure happiness that her face seemed to glow and sparkle with warmth, "that makes Kuroko really, truly happy to hear."

Misaka sat there just entranced in that face, before smiling herself, "In return... I don't want you to keep any more secrets either..."

The smile dropped. "Onee-sama... there are some things I can't tell you, not because I don't want to, but because I can't. I was an important government agent. A lot of my missions and things are top secret. I'll try and get permission to declassify it or at least to grant you clearance. Uiharu and Saten and Konori too... I really need to go and talk to them."

"Well you have plenty of time while I go and be with my parents," Misaka said.

"Yeah... but I still have a lot of work to do in addition to ensuring my friends know I'm all right," Kuroko continued, "I need to go check in with Aleister too..."

"You're still working for him?" Misaka demanded, confused and annoyed, though this annoyance was directed at the man who was manipulating Kuroko rather than the girl herself.

"Of course. I don't know what you've been told but he's the good guy, trust me. It's because of him that I'm alive, twice over. At times his plans may seem to involve unpleasant things but I know better than anyone that he's a good person. Far better than that group of murderers, vandals, and hoodlums that you waltzed into that building with."

"They're good people... some of them..." Misaka tried to defend.

"Good people who do bad things," Kuroko compromised, "either way I'm still going to be working for Aleister. I've helped too many people to give it all up now."

Misaka sighed, "I still have no idea what you've been doing..."

"Saving lives, saving the world," Kuroko shrugged, "that sort of thing. Like what that neanderthal does only on a bigger scale."

"You really hate Touma don't you..."

"More than you can possibly imagine."

"Don't kill him..." That was about as much as Misaka felt right in asking Kuroko to do regarding Touma, anything else would just be... difficult.

"If I haven't yet then I'm not going to."

Misaka nodded and hugged Kuroko before getting off the bed, "My parents will be here soon... I should get ready..."

"Shower together?" Kuroko chimed happily at the prospect.

"If your hands wander I will zap you, injured or not," Misaka warned.

"Acknowledged... your hands can wander wherever they want though..." Kuroko grinned.

"Oh shut up," Misaka chuckled as they went into the bathroom.

* * *

Author's Note: Another very short first chapter. I kind of just wanted some happy fluff after all the drama that ended the second book... Anyway we have a full schedule ahead of us for this book, including some really cool fights and a lot of reveals about... well a lot of things. This book doesn't adhere to canon so I have more freedom.

I'd like to try writing 8000 word chapters but that might not be possible... we'll have to see how it goes from here on.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this new book.


	2. Toaru Ritān No Seijō

とあるリターンの正常

Toaru Ritān No Seijō

A Certain Return of Normalcy

* * *

November 22nd, 8:56AM

Tokiwadai Exterior Dorms

"I'm heading off now," Misaka called to Kuroko as the younger girl, sitting at her desk and still wrapped in a towel, fixed her hair up in it's usual pigtails. Unlike usual though she kept a portion of the hair draped over her left eye, almost as if she was trying to hide it. Misaka didn't have the time to pursue that particular line of investigation at the moment though, "gotta go meet my parents."

"Have fun," Kuroko smiled back, "need to be teleported to the street?" She gestured towards the door, which was still barred.

"Ahhh... yeah... hehe..." Misaka rubbed the back of her head and grinned as if the entire thing were a joke, "I guess that would be kind of helpful."

Kuroko walked up and kissed Misaka, using the contact to teleport her away onto the streets below. Now alone she smiled a bit to herself. Then dropped the towel. She stood in a particular fashion and retrieved the bandages she had teleported off of herself yesterday from the horn of Gabriel she had had embedded in her body which was, miraculously, still functional. She had thought that Apep would have undone its magic immediately, but since it had been untouched it was unaffected, meaning she had her clothes and armor (both sets) and Nemean Lion's pelt still at the ready. Her other horn's of Gabriel had also been saved when she had teleported them off of herself and into the corner during Misaka's hug in the windowless building, before Apep's rampage.

She realized that all the bandages would surely worry her friends if they were to see them. Even with the long sleeve blazer of their Tokiwadai winter uniform covering her arms sufficiently, her legs were still mostly visible, and the bandages which covered the hole in her neck were plain to see as well.

she thought about it and decided to put on the leggings of her stealth armor and mess around with the texture and appearance settings until she found one that looked like fabric. She could pass them off as stockings. The neck was easily dealt with by wrapping a scarf around it. It would be harder to do this during warmer weather so she was quite glad it was a particularly cold November.

As she prepared herself she looked towards her desk and smiled, "Hey there Prometheus, It's been a while since I've seen you. How have you been?"

"**By the look of it I've been better than you have..." **The raven remarked.

Kuroko grinned and wiggled her thumbs at the bird, "My opposable thumbs say otherwise. I might be hurt but I'm still better off than a bird. I mean... flying is pretty cool but you don't do that anyway."

"**If I didn't agree so much I might be offended by that."**

"So what can I do for you?"

"**As usual it's the other way around. I am doing something for you."**

"You're such a good friend," Kuroko tells the avian, completely sincere.

She almost rethought that opinion when Prometheus attempted to peck her eye out and then disappeared without any explanation. After that hassle she finished getting ready and disappeared herself, off to talk to some people she had not talked to in a very long time.

* * *

November 22nd, 9:45AM

Judgment Branch 177 Headquarters

Konori sighed as she walked towards the familiar building that was the place of her work.

"Something wrong Konori-senpai?" Asked Uiharu, who she had met up with not too long ago.

"Aomi's sick, which means our workload just increased. She wasn't feeling well yesterday and she didn't get any sleep last night which made it even worse," the older girl sighed and face palmed, "I told her not to watch that horror movie, I told her it would keep her up all night."

"Why did she watch a horror movie if she can't handle them?" Uiharu asked. She couldn't handle them very well herself which is why she just avoided them.

"She said it was for 'research'. Our class is doing a haunted house for Ichinasei," Konori told her.

"Oh cool, my class is doing one as well," Saten, who was escorting Uiharu like usual, chimed in, then she added, "Uiharu's class is doing a maid café~"

"What are you going to be in the haunted house?" Konori asked, "I'm supposed to be a vampire with this silly little cape and fangs."

"I'm a nekomata," Saten smiled, "I look so cute in the cat ears. Not as cute as Uiharu's maid outfit though."

"Saten-san," Uiharu blushed.

"What day is your school doing the festival?" Konori asked.

"26th."

"Ours is the 27th," Konori said, "which means you'll be alone for the patrols..."

There wasn't really a response to that. Kuroko had been gone for long enough that she wasn't on their minds too much anymore but whenever something came up which reminded them of the teleporter it still felt like a punch to the gut.

Silence reigned until they reached the door and opened it. Then the silence was broken by a completely unexpected voice saying, "Ahh, there you are. It's nice to see you all again."

They looked up to see the teleporter who had been missing all this time sitting at her desk, which had remained untouched since her disappearance. She smiled at them from behind a scarf acting as if she hadn't been gone at all.

The next fifteen minutes were a blur of tears and smiles, hugs and soothing words, relief and disbelief. All of the worry and sorrow they had felt were unloaded as they rejoiced in the reappearance of their dear friend.

"Where have you been Kuroko?" Konori asked both upset and relieved in equal measures as she finally pulled away to wipe the tears away from her eyes.

"Well... I've was in a coma for a month and a half," Kuroko began, "Most of which I spent going here and there... Then last week I died, that took a bit of time to recover from. I was released last night but that was spent with Onee-sama so I didn't really have the presence of mind to contact you guys..."

"Wait... you were in a coma, then you died?" Saten repeated, absolutely positive she had heard something wrong.

"Yep. But don't worry, I'm 100 percent fine now," Kuroko assured them, "it's not like I died all the way or anything.

"What are you talking about Shirai-san," Uiharu asked, trying to make sense of her friends words.

"I really can't say anything more quite yet," The teleporter sighed, "but just know that I'm fine and ready to get back to work immediately. And I'm really happy to see you guys again."

Konori frowned and looked at Kuroko, "You were proclaimed dead Kuroko. Do you not understand how serious this is. You can't just disappear for 7 weeks then come back and expect everything to pick up right where you left off."

The auburn hair girl waved it off like it was nothing, "I had plenty of time while I was waiting for you to arrive. I reversed the proclamation and got myself reinstated in Judgment. I understand that things won't just immediately go back to the way things were, but hopefully I can make sure they're as close as possible. I didn't survive punching a mass-annihilating demon snake in the face just to be defeated by something trivial like this."

Uiharu was about to say something when Konori sighed and took her hand, "I need to have a quick chat with Uiharu. Stay here." She tugged the flower headed girl outside.

"Shirai-san's... I don't think she's lying..." Uiharu said, confused as to how the teleporter could possibly be telling the truth given what she had said.

"Or at least she doesn't think she's lying... it's possible it's just an extension of her schizophrenia. Some varieties can lead to a catatonic state, which would explain where she's been... but not how she could have been gone for so long without anyone being notified..." Konori said, "if it is the schizophrenia then it seems to be getting worse. I don't think she should be doing Judgment work like this... but..."

"but what?" Uiharu asked, seeing her senpai looking conflicted.

"But if she doesn't come back to work then I won't get to see her much, and we really do need some extra hands... Perhaps if we could just try and limit her to paperwork or helping people find their way around the place," the older girl reasoned. She knew she was doing wrong in letting the younger girl keep her position despite her mental imbalances. She knew she should have told someone and gotten her kicked out of Judgment altogether. Still she could not bring herself to do that. She thought of the girl as the little sister she never had, and she knew that the entirety of the time she could see her kouhai was during Judgment work. If she was kicked off the force then who knows if she'd ever interact with her again, especially after doing something like that which would be seen as a betrayal of trust. Kuroko would hate her if she ever got her kicked out of Judgment, and there just wasn't enough of a problem to justify that risk , "there will be a lot of parents coming for Ichinasei so that should keep her busy and out of trouble and it means you won't have to deal with them all yourself."

"But what if something goes wrong? What if she gets hurt because of this... what if she falls into another coma in the middle of a fight," Uiharu, who didn't have the same problems since she and Kuroko were friends who frequently met up outside of work, brought up to her senpai.

At that Konori paused. The risk hadn't been too great before but if Kuroko had developed the type of schizophrenia that made one fall into comas it was a greater danger to herself than it had been when it was simple voices and a split personality. If she was in danger then it was a completely different story. It might be worth the risk if Kuroko's life and health wasn't on the line but the other girl was too precious to Konori to risk it...

Inside the room Saten was trying to start a conversation she could actually understand. "So how's Misaka doing. You said you saw her last night didn't you? We've been trying to reach her for a week but she doesn't answer. She just shut herself up in her room."

"Yeah... that's kind of my fault... the whole watching me die thing was pretty hard on her. I can completely understand why she'd lock herself up."

"She... watched you die?"

"Kind of... she watched me be mortally injured at least... but as I said I'm better now."

Saten shook her head and just filed the whole thing away for later. It was pointless trying to understand it right now.

After a short while longer the other two entered the room again. "Kuroko..." Konori began, "I don't think it would be a good idea if you resumed work. I wish you could but if you have the chance of falling into another coma the risk is too much. Sorry."

"You don't actually have the authority to do that Konori-senpai. The people in charge of Judgment have already verified my readmission," Kuroko told her reluctantly, not because she wished that what she was saying was untrue but because she didn't want to have to pull rank on her friend and respected senpai.

"Did they know the situation when they did so," the older girl replied sceptically

"Yep," Kuroko verified, "the Chief of Intelligence, the top authority in terms of Judgment, signed off on it herself being fully aware of my condition. If you don't believe me then just check it yourself. In the meantime I have a few more things to do now that I'm fully recovered so I'll be going now. I'll see you all again tomorrow." She smiled at them before disappearing.

* * *

November 22nd, 9:30AM

"Daddy!" Misaka Mikoto cried out as she ran towards the chestnut haired man who had just walked out of the way point which granted access to the city.

"My baby!" Misaka Tabigake smiled widely as he dropped the suitcases he was carrying in order to scoop her up in a massive hug, "it's been so long. You've really grown. You'll be as big as your mother before I know it."

"I don't know about that," Misaka Misuzu grinned as she walked out as well, "looks like she still has quite a bit of growing left."

Mikoto frowned slightly and was about to retort when her father, as always, stepped in to stick up for her. "Oh come on now Misuzu dear, don't make teasing her the first thing you do."

Misuzu giggled. "You're absolutely right dear," she stepped up and gave the two of them a hug, which Mikoto immediately returned. Her mother and her did rub each other the wrong way at times because they were quite far apart from each other in the personality department (much like her appearance was practically a cut and paste of her mother's, her personality strongly resembled her father when he was younger) but they still loved each other very much, even more so when Misuzu wasn't being a bully. "It's so good to see you again Mikoto baby."

"It's good to see you too Okaa-san," the electro master admitted as she smiled.

"Oh yes... sorry I couldn't come last time... to your sports festival thing like usual," Tabigake apologized. He and his wife were wealthy enough to afford a trip to Academy City twice a year during the two events, the Daihesei and the Ichinasei, that visitors were allowed and he had enough influence to make sure that he was on the relatively short list of approved visitors so they visited with a frequency that other students only dreamed of.

"It's ok, I'm just glad you came for the Ichinasei. You're earlier than usual though," Mikoto remarked, happy but curious as to the reason behind it.

"Ahhh... yes, well I have a bit of work that I need to do so I figured I'd come a little early and spend a little more time with my little girl," he smiled.

A lot of teenagers would probably be upset at being called "my little girl" by their parents, but Mikoto liked being daddy's little girl so she just smiled at that, then she frowned as she processed another part of that sentence, "You have work?" Even when he came to these things he often needed to run off halfway through to do whatever it was he did. She didn't exactly welcome the prospect of him doing it again.

"Don't worry," he told her, patting her on the head as if sensing her thoughts, "it's just one meeting at ten o' clock tonight. Today we're all yours.

"That's right, it's our time you're cutting into," Misuzu sighed.

Tabigake put his other arm around his wife's waist, "don't worry. After this I'll have all the time in the world to spend with you."

Misaka blushed and turned away, always embarrassed when her parents acted all lovey dovey like that. The pair were constantly acting like newly-weds and it wasn't something she enjoyed watching. "Hey, how about we go to the mall. It got rebuilt recently so there's a lot of stuff you haven't seen daddy."

"That sounds good Mikoto. Lead the way," He told her as the pair followed their daughter to their destination. As they walked he tried to strike up a conversation. "So how's school been going?"

"Huh, oh good," Misaka said. In truth she hadn't attended school for a week, but she couldn't exactly bring that up or else they would surely ask her about the reason, and if she told them that they would undoubtedly worry about her. "We've been really busy preparing for the Ichinasei."

"What's your class doing this year?" Misuzu asked, remembering how cute Misaka had been last year when she had dressed up in a kimono for the classes flower arranging display. It had been spectacularly boring, as were most Tokiwadai events, but she had looked very nice.

"Ballroom dancing, I'll be playing my violin," she told her mother. She wasn't very confident in her dancing ability so she had volunteered to provide the music.

"Still enjoying that then," her father asked. It was only at Misuzu's insistence that Misaka had begun her violin lessons in order to "balance out all that tomboyishness of hers". Tabigake would have been more than happy to cancel them if she had ended up not liking them but as it was she seemed to like it very much.

"Mhm," she confirmed with a smile.

"Hmmm," Tabigake huffed as his wife favored him with a smug grin as if to remind him that she had been right about the matter, "will you be doing a demonstration again this year."

"Yeah. Can you make it this time," Misaka asked, remembering how something had come up last year and he hadn't been able to make it to her cultural festival. She had thrown a bit of a tantrum at that despite the fact that she should have been used to it by now.

"Yep. I promise," he said. Misaka stopped and looked at him for a second. In her eyes was a strange mixture of hope and resignation. She knew that his promises of attendance didn't mean much given how often he had had to break them in the past but despite that fact she had this ridiculous hope that this time he would keep his word. He knelt down a little to put himself at eye level with his daughter and looked into her eyes."I promise," he repeated, "even if I have to walk barefoot across a sea of needles I will be there this year."

Misaka smiled. "I'm glad to hear it," she said and hugged him.

Misuzu ruffled her daughter's hair and told her, "I'm sure you'll make us proud. You always have and you always will."

"That's right," Tabigake echoed as he straightened up, "now then, off to this mall."

"R-right," Misaka nodded, a bit embarrassed at that display. She turned and continued leading them towards the underground mall. And soon they reached their destination. "Any kind of shop you want to go to?" she asked the two adults.

"Are there any clothing stores around her," Her father asked.

"No," was the two females' simultaneous cry. As much as the pair of them loved shopping for clothes they couldn't stand going with Tabigake, who would turn each shopping trip into a 6-hour long hunt for suits and ties, the later of which he rarely ended up wearing at all despite his collection of well over 200 of them. Sometimes Misuzu wished her husband was more like those ones that hated shopping and would just mope around in the shop until it was time to go.

The man raised an eyebrow but didn't pursue further. Misuzu spoke up and said, "how about heading to that place we went to last time?"

At the mere prospect of going back to that place Misaka had to reign in all of her strength and maturity to appear somewhat nonchalant as she shrugged and agreed, trying hard to sound as if the agreement were for their benefit rather than her own.

The mask completely slipped as they set foot into the pet café, one of Academy City's numerous such establishments. Since pets were hardly universally allowed within the countless apartments and dormitories in the city these buildings were made to pamper to those who liked animals but weren't allowed to keep one themselves.

The only problem was that Misaka's ability meant that the animals always ran away from her. She'd need someone else to calm one down first so that she could do something as simple as even petting the creature. Given how she tended to fall apart in front of cute kittens and puppies she couldn't risk the wounded pride that would result from asking one of her friends to come here with her. As much as she tried to keep a mask of pride and maturity in front of her mother, Misuzu had raised her and knew all her weak points, so attempting to feign maturity was bound to fail, which was one of the things which caused so much conflict between them.

So much like last time, Misaka became enthralled by the furry little creatures that populated the café and Misuzu revelled in how happy the younger girl was and how much she reminded the woman of how she was when she was younger. Of course the enjoyment that she took in seeing this eventually irritated the electro master, who felt that her mother was being condescending and refusing to see her as the grown up that she was. The only thing stopping it from turning into a fight like last time was Tabigake who could see the tension brewing and decided to do something to stop it, suggesting that they leave and explore a little bit more of the mall before settling into a café for a late lunch.

The place was relatively empty, except for a singular waiter who showed them to their seats and asked them what they would like to get to eat and drink. They ordered and the waiter scurried off to get them their drinks.

"So how have things been going with that boy of yours," Misuzu suddenly asked Misaka with a smirk upon her face. The electro master blushed deeply but, despite the warmth of the blood that rushed to her cheeks, she suddenly felt the air get icy cold.

"And who exactly is this boy?" Tabigake said slowly in a familiar tone of voice, one that made everyone in a one hundred foot radius, even those who hadn't heard it, shiver involuntarily. It was a tone normally reserved for when his job called for "encouraging" people to talk when they didn't want to talk or "explaining" why it was not a very smart move attempting to hassle his daughter or his wife. Misaka had once seen him make a six and a half foot tall man with a body-builder physique pale with nothing more than a stern look and two words spoken in that particular tone.

"There is no boy," Mikoto told her father hastily, trying to avoid conflict. She briefly wondered if telling him about Kuroko would put the teleporter's life at risk before discarding that idea as ridiculous (not because Kuroko had once taken out the #1 toughest ESPer along with some of the toughest magicians and other ESPers in the city, not even those qualifications would protect her against her father's fury, but because she couldn't imagine her father hurting her friend).

Tabigake visibly relaxed at this, "I see," he murmured.

Misuzu frowned slightly, "So you really aren't going out... I thought you made a cute couple. Maybe in a couple of years you'll find a nice boy to go out with." Tabigake tensed again at that.

Mikoto realized that this was the time to tell them about Kuroko. It was now or never, now or never, now...

Or never... What was wrong with never anyway? It wasn't as if she'd be lying to them or anything. All she needed to do was not say anything about it...

"I am going out with someone... it's just... not a boy," Mikoto whispered just barely loud enough for them to hear. She had been running away for too long and it had hurt Kuroko and herself both so much. It was time to stop running. She braced herself for... anything, for her parents to yell at her, to reject her, to disown her. The thoughts almost brought tears to her eyes but she had to trust in herself and them. She was ready to receive Judgment.

However, even though she thought she had prepared for everything from acceptance to the most awful of rejection she did not expect what happened next. "Oh, you're going through that phase are you?"

She looked up at her mother with a curious look as the woman continued to speak, "It's common for girls your age to play at romance with other girls, especially given that you do go to an all girl's school and live in dorms surrounded by females. It's just a temporary thing so don't worry." When she heard that last sentence something inside of the electro master simply snapped.

"What **the** **HELL**! How can you just dismiss it like that," Mikoto shot up out of her seat as she began yelling, "you might think I'm your little girl but do you really think I'm so immature that I can't even tell who I like and who I don't? do you even... argh! Why the hell does it have to be a play romance just because it's with another girl?! It was fine when it was Touma, it was real when it was with a boy but just because it's a girl it must be fake, it must just be part of a stupid phase?! Scream at me for being gay, reject me for it, or accept it but DON'T just tell me that my feelings aren't real because you know NOTHING about what I'm feeling stupid Kaa-san!" She turned and stormed out, her parents frozen in shock and a bit of fear as they watched the vicious lightning bolts that erupted from their daughter's frame, blowing out lights and even a television as she walked out of the café

Misuzu turned to her husband and asked, "Was it something I said?"

* * *

November 22nd, 11:13AM

Windowless Building

After checking in with both Jericho and Birdy to tell them that she was fine she told Itora, who was watching nearby, that she would see him later and left to go visit Aleister.

"It is good to see you well again child," Aleister nodded towards the girl, restraining a desire to appear before her and hug her. Kuroko was silent as she knelt before him. After a short while her silence became a bit of a concern, "is something the matter child?" He asked, a question that seemed to snap her out of her reverie.

"No... nothing... it's just... you're a lot more powerful than I thought... it's a bit distracting with this thing," she said and tapped the hair which covered her left eye, or rather the thing that laid beneath it.

"Yes... I understand that it might take a little while to get used to, but it was the only way."

"I know... thank you," she smiled at the magician, "now then. I've been gone for a while, what's happened?"

"Surprisingly little. GREMLIN hasn't made a move since the Baggage City incidents. Since I doubt they are planning on giving up their creation of Gungnir it is probable that they are regrouping to launch an attack on the city, as the next thing required for the creation is either..."

"Apologies for the interruption Aleister-sama but why are you speaking about GREMLIN as if they are a threat?" Kuroko asked, "Without Gungnir it should be easy enough to defeat them again, as I have already done, and even if they managed to create it it would be next to useless. There are two different weapons that people call Gungnir, the one that they hope to create is more accurately known as the Spear of Set and without a shard of Set, the only ones of which are in your possession and mine, the only thing that the spear could do would be to tap into the idol theory version of Set as god of storms and desert not the destructive nature of the aspect of Set that would allow them to do any damage. They could, theoretically, use Touma but since his power has been resealed he'd as worthless and pathetic as he is as a person." The bitterness she felt towards the subject of that last sentence was clear in her choice of words.

"How do you know about all of this," Aleister asked, slightly surprised at the breadth of the girl's knowledge as usual.

"A little bird told me," the girl said, giving the answer he had expected.

"Ah yes... that... Well the fact remains that we are dealing with powerful people here, and now that they know that there is someone here capable of defeating them they are desperate. Desperate and powerful is not a good combination."

"I shall be careful," Kuroko reassured him.

"That is all I ask. Until I get more information of what they intend to do you should remain on standby."

Kuroko nodded, "understood. Oh... and... there's something I want to ask you..."

"If you feel that you can trust them then I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to tell them," Aleister said, seemingly reading her mind, "though I'd like you to wait a while until I can sort out what you can and can't tell them. Come back tomorrow."

Kuroko smiled and nodded again, "thank you Aleister-sama." She said as she disappeared.

* * *

November 22nd, 2:36PM

Tokiwadai Exterior Dorms

With all those errands done she checked in with Oneeni quickly and then sorted some things out with the Dorm Mistress to prevent herself and her Onee-sama from getting into trouble. Then she cleared the things out of the doorway and sat back on the bed, feeling exceptionally tired despite not having done much actual work. She let her eyes flutter shut, with the idea of getting in a short nap before her Onee-sama came home.

That plan was shattered as she was jolted away by the person in question barging in and stomping over to her, looking clearly distraught and conflicted. Kuroko was about to ask her what was wrong when she leaned down and kissed the teleporter roughly, gripping onto the hem of the younger girl's blazer as she straddled her lap. "I love you," she breathed out as she separated for a second before kissing Kuroko again. The teleporter could feel her Onee-sama's emotions pouring out as electricity into her mouth, numbing her tongue and stimulating the roof of her mouth.

Kuroko knew something was wrong but as things were she couldn't bring herself to stop this for long enough to find out what it was. She barely had the presence of mind to teleport their clothing off of themselves before the electro master scorched them with her lightning infused grip, an act which just moved the electric grasp from fabric to flesh. The resulting sensation made any rational thought completely flee Kuroko's mind as the pair indulged themselves in the presence and body of the other.

"And you're sure she'll be here this time?" Uiharu asked Saten as the taller girl pulled her through the building.

"Kuroko said she met with her before so she should be there," the level zero told her friend as she led her to their friends dorm. They had come here before but the door had been... blocked.

"I hope she's feeling better," the flower headed girl sighed.

"Me too... hey there it is. Looks like that blockade's gone too," Saten smiled and doubled her speed as she approached their door and pushed it open only to be greeted by the far too familiar sight of their friends, apparently naked and making out on the bed. She froze before she could get a word out, but the opening of the door was enough to catch the attention of the two on the bed.

Kuroko's clothes instantly reappeared and she quickly moved to shield Misaka from view as she growled, "are you aware of the concept of knocking you two..."

"I... we..." Saten stammered before turning on her heel, "sorry for interrupting."

Suddenly she could feel Kuroko gripping her collar, "you've already interrupted, the least you could do is tell us why you did so," she grumbled, clearly angry. Uiharu was caught between the overwhelming urge to run away and the loyalty she felt towards Saten that prevented her from doing so. She quickly realized that running away from Kuroko had never worked in the past so she stayed put and answered, "we were concerned about Misaka and we came to check up on her."

"That's right..." Saten quickly agreed.

Kuroko glanced towards the quivering heap hidden under the sheets of the bed. She sighed and released Saten's collar, "now's not a good time. How about we all meet up after school on Monday ok?"

"Sure sounds good," Saten said as she began pushing Uiharu out, despite the fact that the level one hardly needed help or encouragement to leave.

Kuroko went over and sat near Misaka and gave another deep sigh, "Sorry about that."

"It's... It's not your fault... I was the one who just suddenly... Uggh..." Misaka roared, "why did I even..."

"What happened... you're back way earlier than I expected..." Kuroko asked. No longer distracted she could finally get to the bottom of this.

"It's just..." Misaka sighed and bean to explain what had happened with her parents, and what her mother had said to her. "It bugged me so much when she said that. It was like... She didn't even take me seriously. Like she thought I was so immature that I can't even decide who I love," Misaka sighed and put her face in her hands, "No that's not it... I guess... I guess I'm scared that she's right. But I don't want her to be right about it, I don't want it to be a phase. After what happened, after how much it hurt both of us when you thought that I didn't love you... I don't want to go through that again and I don't want you to go through that again either." Some tears shone in Misaka's eyes, "I overreacted... I was scared so I just completely blew up at them. Now they'll definitely hate me."

As if in response Misaka's phone rang. She crawled over to her clothes and dug around in her pocket until she found the device. She pressed it to her ears, "hello?"

"Hello," came the calm, relaxing voice of her father, "Your mother wanted to call you to apologize but she was worried you'd still be angry at her. I understand why you got so angry but it really wasn't her intention to be like that and she feels really guilty that she upset you so much. We're heading to the hotel right now and then I have to get ready for my presentation but how about we meet up tomorrow and work all of this out?"

Misaka sniffled, "r-really? You don't hate me?"

"Of course not dear, we could never hate you. We will always love you and nothing will ever change that. Now then, how about we go to that nice restaurant we always go to? I'll get a reservation for around noon. And why don't you bring along that girlfriend of yours so we can meet her." Misaka could hear the strain in his voice at the last sentence and was somewhat happy to note that it was the exact same strain that had been there when he had talked about her boyfriend.

"Y-you really want to meet her," the electro master asked as she glanced at Kuroko. Who returned the look with a smile that radiated an infectious happiness, causing Misaka to smile a bit too.

"Of course. Now then, I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow my baby."

"See you tomorrow daddy," she said as he hung up in order to help his now drunk wife get to the hotel. Their daughter's anger had really upset her, especially since she suspected, correctly, that she had been the cause of it. As always she turned to drink when upset and had wandered off out of Tabigake's sight and managed to get drunk in the time it took him to find her. He had barely stopped her from drunk dialling Misaka (after two failed attempts to do so on her part had led her to telling both a complete stranger and Touma all about her daughter's situation in an attempt to apologize) and giving a slurred apology that would have just made things worse. Knowing that he couldn't ask her to meet up with his wife like this he had decided to meet with her tomorrow and just head back to the hotel they were staying at for now and do it tomorrow.

Back in the dorms Misaka summed up the conversation for Kuroko.

"That's great. I can't wait to meet them," she said sleepily.

"Dad's a bit scary but I'm sure he won't hurt you," the electro master told her girlfriend, "and please don't leer at Kaa-san again."

"I understand," the teleporter responded with a yawn.

"You tired?"

"A little..."

"Well your body... it's best if you get some rest..." Misaka told the younger girl, who agreed and quickly nodded off.

It wasn't until late at night, when Misaka had fallen asleep herself, that Kuroko woke up. She looked at the time and realized that she'd be late for her meeting if she didn't hurry. So she adjusted Misaka's grasp and wrote her a quick note explaining where she was in case Misaka woke up. Then she put on her armor, sans helmet which had been destroyed by Touma, and left.

* * *

November 22nd, 9:46PM

[Classified Location]

Kuroko appeared in the meeting room of the Board of Directors to see that it was empty, except of course, for one person: Marshall. The man grinned as she appeared in the room, "hey there war hero, I heard you died."

"I did," she responded flatly, "I got better."

Marshall drew his gun and fired at her in a single fluid motion. The bullet tore through her armor and hit her directly in the chest... and then straight through the other side. "Not that much better," he remarked as she glared at him.

"There are no weapons allowed in here," she scolded him, seemingly disregarding the fact that he had just shot her. It would be pointless to get angry, it wasn't like she could do anything about it even if she did bother getting mad. The person sitting across from her was nothing more than a projection of Marshall created with his power, untouchable by anyone. The man chuckled and tossed her his gun which she was quick to teleport into the ground below the building.

"Anyway I have some presents for you," the irritating man told her as he pulled a bucket out from under the table, "here you go. All of the medals you earned for your efforts in Russia. You also got several promotions. You're Marshal of the Air Force now, congratulations." He gave a half-hearted, mocking clap.

"An air force which is completely composed of drones, satellites, and unmanned aircraft and which holds no human members other than myself and Oneeni," she said with a sigh as she sat down, "no matter what rank you give me it's not like I have any more power because I don't have any people to command anyway."

"Why do you think I'm giving you the promotions? As it stands they're nothing but more stars to add to your uniform. Stars are kind of like medals, and you know how I love medals..." He reasoned, "Speaking of that, take your bucket."

"There's no way that there can possibly be this many medals to give..."

"There's a lot of duplicates. You managed to rack up 44 purple hearts with all your dismemberment. You've lost more limbs than a clumsy Hecatonchires working in a buzzsaw factory."

"Shut up," she snapped as she grabbed the bucket and stored it moments before a new person came in.

"So this is what you meant," Itora mused as he entered and took his seat next to Kuroko, "fancy seeing you hear... though I admit it's not an entirely surprising revelation. I guess my record for youngest Director is shattered eh? This is going to cause a bit of an uproar amongst the others, I doubt they'll appreciate a child on the Board."

"Appreciate it or not I'm on it and there's nothing they can do about it. I have more innate power than almost all of them and more influence than half of them."

"True enough, but your intimidating presence is really cut down when your face is visible..." He told her as another Director walked in and began to make a fuss over this very issue. As it turns out Kuroko was plenty intimidating on her own without having to rely on a helmet or armor. Her cold gaze was enough to shut up any dissenting voices fairly quickly, especially given her reputation. People in Academy City quickly learned not to underestimate people just because they were young and, little girl or not, this was a person who had single-handedly defeated the entire Russian army.

Once everyone was present they began their meeting. The topics mostly revolved around wrapping up the events of WWIII and working out how to take advantage of the state of events. When the topic of Russia came up Vyers mentioned that the Aleister had sent over an agent to brief them on the current situation. Kuroko was mildly surprised when it was Misaka Tabigake, her Onee-sama's father, who walked in. A look of surprise crossed his face briefly when he looked at her but he was quick to put on his mask of professionalism after that slip.

Rather than talking about Russia he began to talk about China, and how they were making moves, amassing an army in the south and making scouting skirmishes into Russian territory. It wasn't exactly unexpected but it certainly gave the Directors something new to talk about.

"What do we care if China attacks Russia. We may be pursuing diplomatic relationships but we don't owe them anything, certainly not enough to risk another war."

"I agree," stated the Chief of Naval Operations, "If we allocate more funds to the navy and fortify the city we can easily ward off any attempt at an invasion."

"You propose we allow China to start another world war without doing anything to prevent it?" Kuroko demanded flatly.

"This isn't some fairy tale little girl," Another director snapped at her, "We aren't some heroes doing this out of the good of our hearts. There just isn't anything in it for us. It would be a waste of resources to fight when we can simply outlast them."

"Ignoring the ethical matter of whether we should fight there is an issue with the fact that we can not outlast as well as you might think," Vyers interrupted.

"Why the hell not? It's not like they have a bunch of church magicians to make it difficult for us like Russia did."

"The church is not the only group of people who have magic. In fact China has its own branch of magic which has been developed and refined for 1200 years longer than anything the Christians have. Their magic is far more strong and versatile than the church's," Kuroko explained, having intimate knowledge of the magical system of China from Lammington and Prometheus.

"Not only that but the grand magician who heads the major magical organizations of China is one of the seven most powerful magicians in the world, 10 times as powerful as the leaders of all of the churches put together," Vyers added.

"You mentioned forces amassing in the west, what is their composition," Marshall interrupted to ask Tabigake.

"I do not know exact numbers but there is a significant presence of magicians along with several war machines. The troops are few in number but they are well trained and equipped elite troops so they are still a significant fighting force," he shuffled around his folders of notes and intelligence for a short while, "ah, here we are. The majority of the foot soldiers are from one of two divisions, one which specializes in capturing and holding urban areas and the other which specializes in demolition."

"32 mobile missile platforms, 27 light tanks, and 43 pieces of artillery according to satellite activity within the past month. There are also a few hundred aircraft stationed in the various airfields nearby," Kuroko repeated what Willow had just told her through her earpiece (which she was wearing for this very reason).

"So in addition to Chinese magic and military we'll have to deal with India as well," Marshall remarked.

"How is that then," the Chief of Naval Operations asked in confusion.

"Oh I see," Vyers nodded, "Magicians, demolition, artillery. It's a force designed to destroy and destroy quickly. They intend to attack Pakistan in order to get India on their side. Not only will they have the magical power of India's not insignificant population of magicians but they will have a third of the world's population in a single military alliance..."

"This is all ridiculous. Nothing's going to happen," Another director protested.

"Only if we make sure nothing happens," Kuroko said, "nothing happening is ideal but if we don't do something to ensure that nothing happens then things might go very wrong."

"Then why don't you handle it. You seemed to do well enough in Russia, just pull off another miracle like that and we don't even need to bother with it."

"Last time I had perfect intelligence as well as support within the government. This time I don't have that. Even if I did the circumstances are different since China actually wants to go to war," Kuroko replied.

The debate about what to do continued until it was time to adjourn well past 3 in the morning.

* * *

As Kuroko left the building she saw a man in a suit leaning against a lamppost, seemingly waiting for her. She walked over to him, teleporting her armor off of her and bowing deeply in respect, "Good evening Misaka-sama," she said.

Tabigake raised an eyebrow at the polite, respectful speech, including the sama honorific that she had used before during their first meeting as well. The girl seemed quite nervous, far more so than either of the previous times he had met her, "Good evening... it's Shirai isn't it?"

"Yes, Shirai Kuroko," she introduced herself again.

"Oddly fitting..." he noted, "so you are a Director as well as an agent?"

"Yes, I have numerous functions and responsibilities within the city," she said, continuing with the polite speech despite addressing a person who was, by any measure other than age and experience, her subordinate.

The girl sounded like a robot and seemed to choose her words with utmost care. He might think she really was a robot, especially with the various other pieces of evidence he had seen, except for the nervousness that shone in her eyes, that told him that the reason for this cautious behavior was a fear of messing up in front of Mikoto's father. "Well it's certainly safer than being a soldier. No missiles to blow your arm off in Academy City."

"I suppose so Misaka-sama," she replied stiffly, though favoring him with a smile at the at attempt at humor.

"Does my daughter know about you?" He asked, suddenly switching the topic.

"A little," Kuroko admitted, "I can't tell her everything but she knows a bit of it."

"That's probably for the best. I have to say, that was the worst part of my job, the fact that nobody could know about what I did. My family think I'm just an ordinary business man. If I had gotten killed on a mission... well not only would they have had to hear that kind of news but they wouldn't be expecting it at all... At least when you know that your husband's in the army or a police man there's a tiny part of you that knows that he might not come home. It must be the same hearing about a friend." He looked at the girl, "though I wonder if that sort of designation is completely accurate..."

"what do you mean?" Kuroko asked, though she already pretty much knew the answer.

"I heard my daughter got herself a girlfriend. It's not a great leap to guess who exactly it is," Tabigake told her, "I guessed it the moment she told us about it. I'm still not entirely happy about it either."

"Sorry," Kuroko apologized.

Tabigake sighed, "Given how I can't reveal the fact that I know you I kept this to myself while my wife had a more sceptical reaction. Seeing as you're her room-mate I'm guessing you know what happened next. My wife managed to apologize and we're meeting again tomorrow. She's bringing her girlfriend for us to 'meet'." he gave Kuroko a look, "but I'd like to have a little talk with you before hand if you don't mind."

"Not at all Misaka-sama."

"Not violating your bedtime am I? I do understand that teenagers need their rest," He said politely, allowing her a chance to duck out that the look that he still had fixed upon her told her did not exist.

"I'm fine," she said, not choosing to bring up the fact that the number of times she had gotten a full night's rest, that was not because she was in a coma or recovering from injuries, in the past two months could be counted on one hand, "I understand that this is more important."

"Well then... I understand you know this city well enough, where's the nearest bar? Last time I presented something to the board they had a mini bar, but it was gone this time. I need some sort of drink after being in a room with so many politicians."

"There are a few bars... but would a restaurant that serves drinks be ok? I don't handle alcohol very well."

He raised an eyebrow at the girl, "it's not like you could get a drink anyway. I doubt 13 is drinking age even here."

"The air in bars is full of evaporated alcohol and I **really** don't handle alcohol very well. If we're going to talk in any sort of serious fashion I'd really prefer not to be drunk."

Tabigake nodded. His wife preferred the opposite but he could respect a wish for a sober conversation. "Sure."

Soon the two were sitting in a booth of one of the automatic restaurants that was so common in this city. It was good because it was open all night but the issue of curfew meant that it was completely empty other than the two of them.

"so what did you want to talk about Misaka-sama?" Kuroko asked as they sat down.

Tabigake sighed, "this is not at all the situation I thought I would be giving this talk in..."

"What do you mean?" This time the question was founded upon genuine confusion.

"Well to begin with I thought I had a couple more years before I had to do it. And I thought I'd be giving it to a boy."

"You disapprove of your daughter dating a girl? Or are you perhaps the same as your wife in believing that this is nothing more than a phase?" Kuroko's voice was neither defensive or accusatory and it still held the same polite respect that it had before. Tabigake did note, however, that the nervousness had suddenly dropped away.

"To be honest I would be sceptical of her dating anyone. This is a childhood romance that is incredibly unlikely to last. You strike me as a very mature person so you should be able to understand that. The only problem with this girl thing is that it might be a phase, and so it wouldn't be good if she tried to build her whole identity on it or thought that she was somehow abnormal because of it. Her mother meant to be comforting when she said that, not dismissive."

"I can understand that. I do not think she would normally have reacted like that but you understand that she was expecting either acceptance or rejection and having something middle of the road like that just made her confused. And as for your hypothesis that this is a simple childhood romance... well I have no issue with you thinking that. I will work hard to prove you wrong but that proof will only come with time."

A raised eyebrow as the beer he had ordered was delivered, "you really are very mature for your age."

"Thank you Misaka-sama," Kuroko smiled at him.

Tabigake took a gulp of his drink and set it back down, unhappy about the poor quality of the beer but having nothing better available, "now comes the other part. The part which I was expecting to be quite easy but given how it's you it'll be far harder."

"Huh? What part is that?"

"Well you see I love my daughter and I don't want her to be hurt. Even if this is nothing more than a childhood romance the fact is that she can still be hurt by it. Normally I could use my connections or my presence itself to intimidate anyone who thinks of hurting her, but I've seen you tackle a cruise missile with your body and come out fine, so I doubt I can intimidate you with anything."

"You do not need to," the girl said, dropping the polite respectful speech for just a second, "I would give my life a hundred times over before allowing anyone to hurt a single hair on Onee-sama's head. I would tear my own arm off before I let it be raised against her."

"Even if I accept all that the fact is that you work for Aleister. I understand that my daughter is quite the powerful person in her own right. The fact that someone so close to her just so happens to work for Aleister is a little suspicious."

"I was close to her before I began working with Aleister," Kuroko defended.

"That just makes it more suspicious," Tabigake told her.

"But I met her after my first contact with him. I was not chosen for my closeness to Onee-sama nor is my closeness related to the fact that I met him. I met Onee-sama and fell in love with her completely free of any outside influence Misaka-san," she said, the polite speech dropped completely as she defended her position.

"San?" Tabigake noted, pointing this out to her.

"I mean... Misaka-sama... sorry," she said speech back to the polite, respectful formality that it had had before, the last part coming out quite weakly as she realized how she had just been speaking to her girlfriend's father.

"Don't be... if you hadn't gotten angry at that sort of accusation then I might have thought that you didn't care about the matter at all." Tabigake said as he downed the rest of the beer in one swig.

A short silence followed this then Kuroko said, "There's a lot wrong with me... I know that. I'm a person with so many strings attached that I may as well be a marionette. There's only one thing that I'm proud of, one thing that's good about me, one thing that makes up for everything wrong about me. I care about and love your daughter more than anyone else ever could."

Tabigake raised an eyebrow at the line that sounded like it came right out of a cheesy romance novel, "But will you be able to say that in six month's time? a year? two? You two are still growing, not just in bodies but also in personality. By the time you're adults you'll be entirely different people. So you see why my wife and I think that this isn't serious."

"Some personality traits might be best if they're grown out of, Kuroko noted, "and the ones which I love her for... I doubt they'll change."

"Well that's it then," the man said as he stood up, "if everything you say is true then I can't find a single other complaint. Take care of her." He began to leave only to turn back to the table, "oh... and thanks. Without your help I wouldn't be alive... never would have seen my daughter or wife again... Though I still think that you really shouldn't have been a part of the war to begin with."

Kuroko watched him walk out and smiled as she realized she had obtained some sort of approval from at least one of Misaka's parents. The smile stayed on as she went home and got into bed with her Onee-sama, hoping that tomorrow would be as good as today.

* * *

Author's Note: It's an interesting question to consider... is a parent who refuses to believe their child is homosexual worse or better than a parent who disowns their kid for being homosexual? Anyway... here's the first chapter of my new book. I'm a little surprised I managed to get it out on time (I'll try to upload a 8000+ word chapter every 8 days) especially given how busy I've been.

This chapter was a lot of set up but not much interesting things happened. Next chapter will be better, though there's still quite a bit of setup to do. Chapter 4 is the one where things will really start to pick up. Anyway, I'll continue trying really hard so I'd be happy if you all gave me your support by reviewing and favoriting and following my story.


	3. Toaru Hitogoroshi no Gyakusatsu

とある人殺しの虐殺

Toaru Hitogoroshi no Gyakusatsu

A Certain Slaughter of the Butcher

* * *

**Important Note: In this book the Angelic language will be more important so sometimes, like in this chapter, it will be necessary to distinguish Angelic and normal language and it will be quite hard and unwieldy to do so without some sort of indication. So from now on words which are ****bolded and underlined** **are in angelic. This does not include words spoken by Oneeni and then interpreted by the clones however, which will be in normal format. **_**Bolded and Italicized**_** still mean song lyrics.**

* * *

November 23rd, 12:36PM

Last Order huffed as she walked down the streets of Academy City. She was quite irritated and was therefore in the middle of throwing a tantrum. To be exact she had just run away from home, as children were wont to do.

The reason behind her current mood and the tantrum she was throwing was that big meanie that was Accelerator. He'd been so moody lately, angry and even more impatient than usual, and given how he usually was that meant that his fuse was millimeters long these days.

Were she anyone else she might be scared of him but she was just irritated by his constant outbursts and foul mood. He had even refused to go out with her to visit someone, he hadn't even fully listened to the request before dismissing it and continuing to just lounge around doing nothing. When she had argued he snapped at her.

So she had written a note about how she was running away then snuck out to go visit the person on her own. She hoped that the note would cause him to become worried sick and make him sorry that he had ever ignored her or gotten angry with her.

"Maybe I should have pretended that I was kidnapped... I bet he would be real worried then, muses Misaka Misaka." Then suddenly she felt a hand on her head as she heard a chuckle.

"Oh you don't need to pretend something like that," A woman's voice said in her ear, "I'll kidnap you for real if you really want to be."

Last Order froze and looked up at the person. The woman was average height and slim, though she had no curves to speak of, a fact that was somewhat hidden by the blue padded racing suit she wore. She had on a helmet but the visor was up, allowing Last Order to see the girl's muted brown eyes and pale yellow skin that bespoke Asian, probably Japanese, descent. However the lower part of the helmet prevented Last Order from seeing the frown of unhappy resignation that she wore at having to do something like this. The woman sighed, "kidnapping isn't fun kid, but if you want to be kidnapped I admit that it would be easier if you went along willingly." It would certainly ease her conscience a bit.

Last Order broke free from the grasp and backed away slowly, eyes wide. "W-Who are you. W-What do you w-want, asks Misaka Misaka as she begins to panic at this woman's words."

"I am The Chariot. I want to kill Accelerator, but the information I have on him says that's not going to be easy to do so I'm going to kidnap you and force him to kill himself in exchange for your life. I have to say I don't exactly want to do this but I care more about my life than my morals," the woman shrugged.

"Why do you want to kill Accelerator, demands Misaka Misaka angrily."

"10 and a half billion dollars," The Chariot told her, "That's the price on his head, or at least my share of it if I'm the one to kill him..."

"Money, repeats Misaka Misaka, confused as to why such an insignificant thing like that justifies killing Accelerator."

"No no no, it's not for money, it's not for money at all. It's for justice. Do you know what I can do with ten and a half billion dollars? I can finally avenge my father's death at the hands of the Yakuza. Even more than that I can ensure that each and every member of the Yakuza gets locked up, saving hundreds, maybe thousands more lives and improving law and order in Japan by leaps and bounds," The Chariot sighed as she took her helmet off and knelt in front of Last Order, "Listen kid, you probably don't understand any of this. It's really not your fault that you're getting wrapped up in this either. It's just a result of who you are. I know that can be a bit frustrating, to have no choice about how things turn out just because you are who you are. So I'm going to give you a chance. It's a small chance I grant you but I'm going to let you put your life in your own hands. I'll give you a minute to run away before I begin chasing you. Try and find safety before I catch you." The woman stood up and put her helmet back on then slid her visor down. "Run," she said as she got on the motorcycle that was idling nearby.

Last Order wasted no time in running, sending all of the clones a distress signal hoping that one of them, like WORST, would tell Accelerator about this situation so he could save her like he always did.

In the end it was pointless though. One minute was hardly enough to go even 150 meters and The Chariot was on one of the fastest motor vehicles in the world. Last Order looked for narrow alleys and small holes for her to duck into, somewhere that the woman wouldn't be able to reach her, but before she could get to one she heard the sound of the motorcycle closing in behind her.

'Maybe I should have given her longer,' The Chariot thought, realizing that this wasn't very honorable of her. Still, honor lost to survival and survival wasn't likely unless she could capture this girl. She sighed as she prepared her motorcycle's net gun. She fired the net towards the little girl.

Last Order saw as the net drew closer. She knew she wouldn't get away. In her panic she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Help!" The net hit before she could narrate for herself. She felt something wrap around her as she was tugged off her feet.

Then she realized that she was not in a net, but rather she was nestled in a familiar pair of arms. In addition she could hear a familiar voice:

"_**I'm a shooting star leaping through the skies**_

_**Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity**_

_**I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva**_

_**I'm gonna go go go**_

_**There's no stopping me"**_

She looked up at the source of the voice and saw a speaker pinned to the lapel of a fancy and expensive looking tuxedo. As her vision drifted further up she saw a familiar face wearing a fedora, sunglasses, and a smile.

"Nee-chan! shouts Misaka Misaka, hugging the shepherd in gratitude and happiness."

* * *

November 23rd, 11:46AM

Kuroko's Residence

After almost an entire morning spent grooming herself meticulously Oneeni finally left the bathroom and went to the bedroom. Sitting on the bed were 9 clones, who had been waiting all morning for her to get finished, so when she entered they immediately swamped her. She gave them each a hug then told them she was going to be getting dressed after she brushed her hair so she could talk to them now.

They eagerly took her up on her offer.

"Are you sure you're all better now nee-chan asks MISAKA13577."

"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me, God made me all better says the shepherd says MISAKA19090."

"Why couldn't you have any visitors in the hospital asks MISAKA10399, referencing the visits we attempted to pay you only to be unable to do so."

"I don't know says the shepherd says MISAKA19090."

"Speaking of visitors MISAKA10032 was unable to join us today but is planning on seeing you on the 27th if that is ok with nee-chan explains MISAKA13577."

"That sounds just fine says the shepherd says MISAKA19090."

"Why is nee-chan only speaking through MISAKA19090? It's not fair protests MISAKA13577."

There was a bit of an argument following that while Oneeni reassured them that it was purely a matter of proximity. After which all of them attempted to get as close to her as possible, making it somewhat difficult to finish up and get dressed, though in the latter part the extra hands were actually quite useful. She looked nice in the tuxedo but it was quite hard to put on without help.

She had just finished getting ready (and calming down all the clones who continued to bicker) when all of the clones suddenly stopped talking, apparently receiving a message.

"Last Order's being kidnapped says MISAKA10399."

Kuro-sama had told Oneeni just yesterday that there may be troubles in the near future, perhaps this is what she meant... The tuxedo-wearing clone grabbed her cane and jumped out the window, landing on the nearest power line as she fiddled with her glasses to switch to the tracking devices that were embedded in the clones, including Last Order. Luckily most of the dots were grouped together so it was fairly easy to determine which one was last Order. She found her quickly and was relieved to see that she wasn't too far away, and was moving at a pace which suggested she was not yet moved to a car yet. Despite that situation she wasted no time (putting on some nice battle music while on the move wasn't wasting time after all) in zipping there with all the speed she could muster, arriving just in time to see a motorcycle speeding in her direction.

Oneeni didn't bother to stop, simply shooting a dart from her wrist launcher into another power line and jumping off of this one, only to realize a second too late that her hands were now full and she'd have to drop something in order to pick up the little clone. She saw a net shoot out from the motorcycle and knew that if she didn't stop that it wouldn't matter whether she had a free hand as she would be too late anyway. So she frowned and threw her cane, the precious gift she had gotten from her mentor, at the net, intercepting it and freeing up her right arm to allow her to scoop up Last Order and pull the pair of them onto the power line that she had attached the line to earlier.

"Nee-chan! shouts Misaka Misaka, hugging shepherd-nee-chan in gratitude and happiness." Oneeni smiled at this briefly before looking back at the motorcycle still moving along the power lines at her maximum speed.

The Chariot had screeched to a halt briefly as she disconnecting the net from the launcher and looked at her new opponent. "Interesting," she mused as she resumed her position on her motorcycle and took off after the pair. "This is much more sporting, an actual chase rather than a hunting a limping tortoise. Plus I think that girl's on the list of targets as well. half a billion if I remember correctly, so that means 262 million for me. That little bit more ought to be enough to get the police almost 100 more helicopters plus pilots if they wanted to. The Yakuza won't have a chance."

Moving along the power lines was Oneeni's preferred method of travel mostly due to the speed with which she could go, which could match some cars. At maximum speed she could reach upwards of 40 miles an hour. This was obviously not enough to outstrip The Chariot's super fast motorcycle though so she had to think of another way to lost the woman using the small head start she had gotten from The Chariot's brief pause.

According to the map on the HUD of her glasses there was an alley near here that ended in a dead end. The power line went down the alley and over the building so she could get by it but the motorcycle could not. It was perfect. She skated along the line and over the building, watching as the rider as carefully as she could without risking falling from her perch as the music blazed in the air.

"_**I'm burning through the sky yeah!**_

_**Two hundred degrees**_

_**That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit**_

_**I'm trav'ling at the speed of light**_

_**I wanna make a supersonic man out of you"**_

What she saw disheartened her a little bit. The motorcycle screeched into the turn and began speeding down the alley, irreverent to the fact that it was obviously a dead end. Then, about a quarter of the way along the length of the alley, the bike pulled a wheelie and the whole front half pivoted 90 degrees sideways, causing the wheel to begin screeching against the wall of the buildings that made up the alley. Then the rider, her body contorted to fit this new configuration, turned the handlebars to the right, gaining traction along the way and pulling the bike up enough to pull the other half of the bike up onto the wall too. utilizing the traction of the wheels, she managed to move up the wall far enough in the remaining space to clear the building, shooting up into the air, where she twisted the bike one half at a time back into it's normal position, letting The Chariot land safely and continue her chase of them, completely undeterred by Oneeni's brilliant idea.

When Oneeni had first seen that it was a motorcycle that had been chasing Last Order she had briefly regretted choosing "Don't Stop Me Now" rather than "Bicycle Race" which she felt would have been more fitting. But seeing that she felt that her choice, which had been accidental and rushed, was far more accurate than she had thought.

"_**Don't stop me now**_

_**I'm having such a good time**_

_**I'm having a ball**_

_**Don't stop me now**_

_**If you wanna have a good time**_

_**Just give me a call"**_

There was no way that she could possibly outrun or hide from this person, not when they could climb walls with a freaking motorcycle. She doubted she could climb something like a skyscraper but then again she wasn't sure how she could get onto a skyscraper herself in order to hide there.

The only thing that kept Oneeni, as well as the girl who was now in her arms, safe was their elevation. The Chariot and her motorcycle could keep up easily, but that didn't mean they could actually get to them.

Perhaps if she kept on here and on the move she could make it a war of attrition. On the power lines she had ready access to almost unlimited electricity. If she just keep on zapping The Chariot, eventually the bike would fail or the person riding it would fall unconscious. If that didn't work perhaps a knife or two accelerated with Electromagnetism would stop it in its tracks. She adjusted her hold of Last Order and took a knife out of her suit jacket.

As if sensing her thoughts the bike drew further back, out of range. She attempted to shock her using the wire as a conduit but the combination of non-conductive material on her suit and the fact that the bike was a great conductor made any attempts to harm her with electricity doomed from the start.

However, as it turned out, When The Chariot had pulled back it was not to put herself out of range of Oneeni's, but to give herself plenty of room for her own. She pressed another button which deployed a missile launcher. She fired at one of the power lines further along to force the pair of girls to descend without hurting either of them.

Oneeni saw the missile firing, unsure of it's trajectory. She assumed it was launched at her, so she threw the knife at it in an attempt to intercept it before it hit. She succeeded in doing so, unfortunately the force of the collision of the knife and the missile caused the latter to explode and the force of that explosion was enough to send Oneeni tumbling off the power line.

"_**I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars**_

_**On a collison course**_

_**I am a satellite, I'm out of control**_

_**I am a sex machine ready to reload**_

_**Like an atom bomb about to**_

_**oh oh oh oh oh explode."**_

She curled her body around Last Order to protect the small clone from the collision. At the speed she was going and the height she was at injury was inevitable and brutal. Hit on her side and skidded along the ground until hitting a building.

The initial impact broke her ribs, all of the ones down the right side by the feel of it. One, or maybe five from the feeling of it, of the ribs punctured a lung while the others punctured other organs. Her pelvis was cracked if not completely shattered in one side. Her shoulder and right arm were broken as well. Luckily Last Order was completely unharmed, minus a possible concussion which had knocked her unconscious.

Were she not used to this sort of pain from all her sparring matches with her mentor then she would surely have fainted on the spot. As it was she even able to stand up and stumble a few steps forward just as The Chariot's motorcycle skidded to a halt in front of her and deployed another weapon. A machine gun.

With as much speed as she could she got out another knife and threw it, this time boosting its speed with electromagnetism to shred through the metal of the gun. Unfortunately in the time it took her to do this 5 bullets had fired from the gun, tearing through her abdomen.

"_**I'm burning through the sky Yeah!**_

_**Two hundred degrees**_

_**That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit**_

_**I'm trav'ling at the speed of light**_

_**I wanna make a supersonic woman of you."**_

'Quite the worthy opponent I've found here... This is far more fair than just kidnapping a little kid.' The Chariot thought as she looked down at the torn apart and useless weapon.

'Must protect Last Order...' was all Oneeni was thinking, until she saw that her hat had fallen off and was now lying on the floor in front of her. 'Must retrieve hat and protect Last Order...' she amended her thought.

She reached for her broken arm and undid the cuff-link then she used her foot to kick her hat into the air. Then she grabbed the collar of Last Order's coat with her left arm and began limping away, saying a prayer under her breath, **"please God, let my aim be true..."**

"No you don't," The Chariot said as she began speeding towards the pair.

The power of prayer was negligible to say the least, but that didn't mean that, by virtue of coincidence, some things which were prayed for did not come to pass. In this case Oneeni's aim, had indeed been true.

The problem with Oneeni's tuxedo and the weapons which it contained was that most of those weapons were disguised as other things. This tended to make them far less lethal than they would be if they did not bother with being disguised. There was one exception to this rule though, and that exception was also the most lethal weapon, the cuff-links. The cuff-links were actually powerful explosives, the most powerful compact explosives invented in fact, rigged to a proximity sensor. When taken off and twisted around it activated and, after a three second delay to allow it to be placed or thrown, it would explode when anyone came within a small radius.

Since the radius was so small it wasn't too effective except in a hallway or some confined space. And if the person knew that you had done something and could avoid it then it was hopeless, which was why Oneeni had thrown it while kicking up her hat in distraction, meaning that The Chariot had not seen her throw the cuff-link mine on the ground in front and to the side of The Chariot's motorcycle. When it passed within the sensor radius the explosion knocked The Chariot off of the vehicle and also knocked her out.

* * *

Now with the threat disposed of, and Last Order safe, Oneeni could now concern herself with her own health and safety. She vaguely registered that the injuries she had so far sustained were lethal. Given the amount of blood she had lost and was losing she figured she had about one minute of consciousness and perhaps twice that of life. She realized she as about 200 feet from Heaven Canceler's hospital. Since Heaven Canceller took responsibility of anybody within 100 feet of the hospital all she needed to do was limp 100 feet in a minute.

She thought all of this while limping forward at a pace which was just enough to get her to safety if she kept it up, dragging the unconscious Last Order along behind her.

She was halfway to safety when the lamppost hit her left arm hard and fast enough to make it snap off like a twig.

"Get away," she heard a person roar from the side. She turned just in time to see an albino teen in a black and white shirt speeding towards her, stopping suddenly just in front of her and pushing her. Despite the tiny amount of force actually exerted by the blow she flew back at perhaps 200 miles and hour straight at a wall. She didn't even have time to realize that the impact would certainly kill her before it happened.

Oddly enough though Oneeni didn't feel very dead after that... and she would know what that felt like. She didn't feel herself hit and splatter against the cold, unforgiving concrete. Instead she felt as if she were floating in a very warm, comfortable place. Even the unimaginable pain had completely ceased. She might think she actually had died and gone to heaven but last time when she had died there had been nothing but cold and agony, then nothing. She couldn't have been killed that quickly so something else must have happened.

This theory was reinforced when she heard the angry, brutal voice of Accelerator gain an edge of fear as he sputtered out, "y-you!"

Oneeni opened her eyes to see two white clothed, golden skinned arms wrapped around her. "You always seem so dissatisfied by my presence," Aiwass said to the albino with an air of amusement about his tone, "have I done anything to you to deserve such hostility?"

Accelerator glanced to Last Order only to see that she was fine, she hadn't transformed into the core like she had the last time Aiwass had appeared.

The angel noted the direction of his glance. "are you perhaps confused? Wondering how I can possibly appear without using her as a core?" He chuckled, "you are an idiot. This is unrelated but it is a statement of fact that I feel necessary to remind you of. On a more related note I am one of the most powerful beings on this planet. The stronger an angel the larger their halo and wings, and I am so powerful that were I to appear my halo would be large enough to blot out the sun for all of Japan and my wings would be so vast that I could grasp the Mars in one and Venus in the other. Using her as a core helps limit my power to a manageable level therefore allowing me to materialize with some of my power but not enough so as the turn this entire city into a crater of fire and destruction. Without her I can appear on my own in an even weaker form but rest assured that my power is still more than enough to do as I wish, and you can't dismiss me by turning off your little collar."

"What the hell are you doing here!" Accelerator demanded as he clenched his fist and maneuvered himself to put his body between Last Order and the angel in front of him.

"**Mentor?"** Oneeni said in Angelic, finally fighting past the blood in her lung to speak the word. Though neither dead nor in any pain the injuries were still present. More blood from her head injury leaked down and flowed towards her eye, forcing her to close it, and down her cheek.

"I suppose I'm here to make life hard for you. It's quite a fun thing to do after all," Aiwass smiled as he moved his hands up to Oneeni's cheek, tracing the line of blood, forcing the stream crimson liquid to follow his finger. However, unheard by Accelerator, another sound originated from the angel as well, the sound of a disharmonious racket that he wouldn't have thought of as words anyway but which Oneeni could both hear and understand. The words said, "**I would prefer it if you did not do such risky things. You just got out of the hospital from a grievous injury and I would prefer it if you not obtain another such injury the day after you are released."**

Oneeni smiled briefly as she felt the tingling of Aiwass's hand, which was made from almost pure energy rather than flesh or the like, as it ran up the trail of blood and danced over the wound, closing it up as he had done for her so many times in the past when they had sparred. Then she frowned as she looked again at Accelerator and realized that he was standing in front of Last Order. "**We have to help 20001. The Butcher might hurt her, he's dangerous."**

'Children...' Aiwass thought, amused, 'They always amaze you. Even with all the bother and worry they cause you it is always made up for by the pride you feel in them when they grow up well. You've always been such a loyal little girl my shepherd, towards your doomed siblings, towards that girl that caused your injury, and towards me. You'd risk death for any one of us wouldn't you, even when you don't have to...' As he thought these thing the hand that was still crossed over Oneeni's chest pulsed with a golden light which healed her broken ribs and arms and restored her punctured lung and destroyed side and hip. Soon she was as good as new, even her outfit was completely restored.

"You're helping the enemy just to make my life hard you petty, sadistic son of a bitch?" Accelerator demanded, his anger almost popping a vein in his forehead.

Aiwass suddenly had an idea. He smiled as much as this manifestation allowed him to do so, then he spoke again in two tongues to two different targets. "that's one way to put it I guess. It is amusing to watch you struggle," he said to Accelerator, while to Oneeni he said, "**I suppose you are right. But it would not do to coddle you from all harm and risk. I'll step in this once and I'll protect you from the Butcher if he significantly wounds you again, but I won't guard you from all harm and I won't help you very much. The lamb is your responsibility isn't she? I will give you a path to her, then I want you to take her and run. You are fully aware that it is impossible to win against him in a fight, so just flee for as long and far as you can."**

"**Can I outrun him?"** She responded

"**Nope,"** He told her, "**you can't do a thing."**

Oneeni shook her head, "**No... I can."**

"**You're welcome to try certainly. It should be interesting. Maybe if you can get to your sword you might manage to win I suppose..."**

Oneeni nodded and waited as Accelerator ranted at Aiwass as the angel snapped his fingers to turn on Oneeni's MP3 player and turn it to an appropriate song. "this isn't a game you bastard. I'm not playing with you just for your amusement," The albino yelled at the angelic being, then he turned around towards Last Order. Suddenly he heard a deep pounding rhythm, like a crowd of people stomping twice then clapping once. Then he felt himself shooting sideways a fair distance before he touched the ground and halted his movement with his ability. He turned back to Last Order and Aiwass and saw that the tuxedo wearing girl was running over to the little clone, ready to try and kidnap her again. He wouldn't let her though. He raised his foot, ready to unleash a ground-pound and trip her up when suddenly he saw her throw something at him, probably another knife. These idiots never seemed to learn that their attacks wouldn't work on him.

Rather than a ground pound, which might hurt Last Order too, he'd just reflect the knife back at her. He'd aim for her head this time and finish her in one bl-. his thoughts were interrupted when he realized the thing was the wrong shape for a knife and was flying way too slowly. He didn't have time to figure out what it actually was before it exploded in a flash of light.

While Accelerator was capable of reflecting light he needed to let several bands of the electromagnetic spectrum through his shield lest he risk freezing to death from lack of infra-red energy heating him up and also to allow him to see. Unfortunately Reflection was an all or nothing kind of thing. Unfortunately for him he didn't have a natural upper limit to the amount of light that he allowed in without being reflected. This meant he was vulnerable to being blinded by flash grenades, like the one Oneeni had just thrown at him.

He cried out in pain as his eyes were burned by the light. He stomped and sent the ground around him shaking but he heard as the music drew further away, signalling that his attack missed.

"_**Buddy you're a boy make a big noise**_

_**Playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day**_

_**You got mud on yo' face**_

_**You big disgrace**_

_**Kickin' your can all over the place"**_

It echoed as he rubbed the stars out of his eyes and began moving he heard Aiwass chuckle. "A good opening move. She's clever. You've had your power on since you left to find her haven't you... since she's been unconscious for a good part of that you've had to use the battery of your collar haven't you? It should be running out of energy around now shouldn't it? It wouldn't be much fun if you ran out and it's an advantage the others didn't have... Tell you what, I'll give you your normal level of power back. The level you had before your brain injury."

Before Accelerator could speak he felt a surge in his brain as a feeling he had not felt in a very long time settled in, the feeling of power, of unimaginable power, coursing through his body. He could feel the control he had once had possession of, control over everything he touched, control over the very laws of the universe itself.

"_**Buddy you're a young man hard man**_

_**Shoutin' in the street gonna take on the world some day**_

_**You got blood on yo' face**_

_**You big disgrace**_

_**Wavin' your banner all over the place"**_

And now his vision was cleared of most of the stars, letting him see again, he immediately took off. he didn't know why Aiwass had given his powers back, but he would soon regret it. Once he was done making that girl in the tuxedo pay for kidnapping Last Order he would come back and take care of that damn angel.

He could vaguely detect the vectors of that music in the air and he followed it at an incredible speed. He turned the corner of the street and then followed it to an alleyway.

"_**Buddy you're an old man poor man**_

_**Pleadin' with your eyes gonna make you some peace some day**_

_**You got mud on your face"**_

The words echoed from down the alleyway. They sounded as if they had stopped moving. Perhaps the kidnapper thought that she had finally lost him. Oh how wrong that poor bitch was... Trying to kidnap Last Order from him, there would be no escape. She would pay. He rocketed down the alleyway, eyes ablaze.

"_**You big disgrace**_

_**Somebody better put you back into your place"**_

At that last word he felt an incredible pain shoot through him. The pain and shock rocketed around inside him again and again until he passed out from it, his momentum sending him skidding along the floor of the alley like a ragdoll.

* * *

Oneeni watched this from the side alley and released the breath she had been holding since the start of this chase. Had it been any other day she would have listened to her mentor and just run away, but she was tired of doing that, she'd had enough running away from today and it hadn't helped anything, it had just gotten her and Last Order even more hurt. She had decided to confront Accelerator.

A plan had formulated quickly while she was running away from Accelerator as he recovered from the flash grenade. After that encounter that one time in the facility she had researched more about him in order to find ways to avoid and escape from him more efficiently in the future were it ever to become necessary. She had reasoned that there were two major holes in his power, one of which was the one she had just utilized to blind him. The other was that he had no control over objects that have no vectors.

So she had found a narrow alleyway with a side alley connecting to it. She had ripped off the speakers and thrown them down the alley, hoping he would follow them rather than her. Then she hid in the side alley. Once she had settled in and put Last Order down she fired a dart into the side of the building across from her at around neck height and filled the nano-tube line connected to it full of electricity, using her power to spread the energy out equally along the line and to keep it there until he came along.

The wire was so thin that it went through his skin without even cutting it, instead squeezing between the cells. and the instant that that had happened her power, which was holding the electricity within the wire, was blocked by his ability and the electricity began to flow outwards into his body. It wasn't very much electricity but, due to his ability, it kept on bouncing around inside of him, causing quite a bit of pain, until it hit something important and knocked him out shutting off his ability and allowing the electricity to finally find a ground and escape.

She looked at his body and wondered briefly what to do. She then decided to leave this place, recover her speaker and then her cane and sword. Accelerator was no longer her concern. By the time he woke up she would be far away from here with Last Order.

As she bent down to pick up the young clone her knees gave out and she realized just how terrified she had been a second ago, how terrified she still was. She was within spitting distance of the seventh most powerful person in the city. She could not believe that she had beat him, she half-expected the albino to just get up and laugh at her efforts.

The thought of this gave her enough panic-fueled adrenaline to pick up Last Order and run away despite how much her knees were shaking.

She carried the little girl back home. When they were about halfway there she roused from her unconsciousness and yawned cutely as if she had just taken a little nap. "Nee-chan? What happened asks Misaka Misaka, feeling as if she had missed something very important."

Oneeni waited until she had reached a power line that skirted near the roof of a building before jumping off and setting Last Order down. "You're safe now," she signed to the clone, "I'm taking you home now."

"Kuro-sama's home you mean, asks Misaka Misaka, excited at the prospect of seeing Kuro-sama and shepherd-nee-chan's house but realizing that Yomikawa-san and Yoshikawa-san are probably worried about me." Last Order purposefully didn't include Accelerator out of spite. The person who had promised to protect her probably wasn't worried at all that she was missing, he hadn't even come to rescue her. If nee-chan hadn't come in to save her she'd probably be dead and Accelerator still wouldn't care.

"I guess I can take you to your home. Where is it?" She asked with sign language. Last Order told her the address. Oneeni found it with her glasses and then picked up the little girl once more and began the journey to her house.

* * *

November 23rd,12:39PM

Yomikawa Residence

Yomikawa Aiho heard as the door slammed shut suddenly and with great force. "Accelerator storm out again?" she called out to WORST who was in the other room with him.

"He's been so angry lately, you'd think he'd be done with puberty by now but he's still just a kid," Yoshikawa Kikyou mused.

Suddenly WORST burst into the room. "Last Order's been kidnapped, he's gone to rescue her," she told the adults.

"What?" they said in harmony, Aiho's outburst having a little more concern than Kikyou's.

"How did- oh yeah the network thing," the Anti-Skill woman realized, "I'll call it in, maybe I can help get her back." She took out a phone and called up Anti-Skill, only to hear an unexpected voice coming from the other end.

"Hello, can I help you?" It asked.

"Ch-Chief Marshall?" the woman asked, surprised at why such a high figure was taking her phone call.

"That's my name, don't wear it out... what do you need Aiho?"

"I need to report a kidnapping," she said, recovering quickly.

"Oh yes, that thing. I already know about it," he told her. Aleister had told him about the intruders the moment they appeared but his orders were to leave them alone for now until they could sort out what they wanted. Once they had determined that then the Black Knight would take care of one while her tuxedoed companion would handle the other. He was told to ensure that nobody else interfered, "we've got our second best agent on it so don't worry."

"Is there anything-" Aiho began but was cut off by Marshall.

"Nope. There's nothing you can do agent. You're way too far away our agent has... just made contact with the kidnapper. So just stay there, that's an order. Goodbye then and have a nice day." He said then hung up.

Aiho looked at the other two and explained the conversation she had just had. Kikyou shrugged, "well that's good then. Quite a prompt response from Anti-Skill for once. I'm surprised." Aiho shot a glare at her.

WORST thought about it and whispered, "nee-chan?" under her breath.

"Did you say something?" Aiho asked her.

"Huh? oh, nah. I'm gonna kick back again," she said as she laid down on the couch.

WORST was designed to be the outlet of all the negative emotions felt by the Misaka Network. Because of this she generally hated everyone and everything connected to the experiment and by extension pretty much everything... However the shepherd was an anomaly. There wasn't a single clone in the Misaka network that had negative emotions towards the shepherd.

Had she been raised by the Shepherd like the others she may have developed the same sort of appreciation that the other clones had for her, or that WORST had for Accelerator and her guardians. But as it was she and Last Order were the only two clones that had never experienced the guiding hand of the shepherd directly. Last Order was a child so she thought that the shepherd was a good person because she had been good to the other clones, but WORST didn't have that sort of inherent trust. She felt completely neutral towards the shepherd.

No... that wasn't it. Her personality and identity as a repository of negative emotions prevented her from feeling neutral about anyone or anything. She found she was... anxious. She found herself a little worried about what the Shepherd would think of her. She was a freak among the network and she knew that... what if the shepherd hated her because of that?

She was lost in thought for quite a while until the door burst open and Last Order announced that she was home. Aiho sighed in relief as she welcomed the girl home only to stop as she saw another person walk in behind her.

"This is where I live, explains Misaka Misaka as she shows shepherd-nee-chan Yomikawa-san's apartment."

"Nee-chan?" repeated Aiho, confused. The tuxedo wearing girl that followed the young girl didn't look like a clone at all. But then again neither did WORST...

"Shepherd?" Kikyou echoed the other half of the name, though in a far less confused manner, as if she had heard the name before. This was confirmed when she said, "Been a while since I've heard that name. How've you been?"

The shepherd person typed something into a little device in their wrist which then echoed out with an artificial voice, "neutral tone: fine."

"Oh yeah," Kikyou seemed to recalls something, "you're mute aren't you. That's why all the clones had to learn sign language..."

"And this is MISAKA WORST says Misaka Misaka as she points to the lazy person on the couch."

"Who are you calling lazy you brat," the older clone snapped. Then she saw nee-chan's head turn towards her. She couldn't see the clone's eyes past the dark sunglasses but she could feel her gaze, "what you looking at?"

If Oneeni remembered what the other clones had said of WORST then she had the sign language ability like the rest of them, but it was better to be safe than sorry so she typed out the message, "thoughtful tone: that dress suits you quite well, though it does clash a bit with your eyes. Perhaps some skin tone mascara to cover up the ring and make your eyes look a little smaller."

Aiho was extremely confused and looked to Kikyou for an explanation. Kikyou understood and began to tell the other woman about it. "She was a failed clone from the first batch that the person in charge of the experiment kept around for some reason. She helped around during the experiment, looking after the clones. As a result they look up to her as a sort of big sister. She always seemed kind of odd, obsessed with fashion and her appearance, and she always seemed a bit ignorant as well, she has no idea what the experiment was all about."

Meanwhile WORST was blushing and trying to act hostile and upset, a farce which Oneeni easily saw past. She got out her notebook and made some notes regarding this new clone. Suddenly Oneeni stopped as a blip showed up on her glasses.

She turned to Last Order, "it looks like we were followed," she signed.

"Followed repeats Misaka Misaka, slightly afraid of being kidnapped again but positive that shepherd-nee-chan can beat up any kidnappers."

Aiho heard this and got out her gun, "they followed you here?" she asked, ready to assist if it became necessary.

Oneeni nodded and pointed Last Order to the corner of the room, where she went to hide momentarily. Then the tuxedo wearing girl gestured over WORST and explained that, if worst came to worst, she'd need her to recharge the capacitors on Oneeni's back. She nodded, oddly happy to have the girl asking a favor of her. With all of that sorted the shepherd drew her sword out of it's scabbard and pointed it at the door.

Now they waited for the dangerous kidnapper to walk through their front door.

Back in the alley, Accelerator was coming back around into consciousness. As he did so he was made aware of a presence nearby. He struggled to prop himself up and flare at the glowing figure of Aiwass as he leaned against the dank walls of the alley, smirking down at the level five. It was such a stark contrast: the dark, cramped walls of this godless alley compared to the warm, glowing pureness of the angelic being that stood within them.

"To be honest," the angelic being said, "I was not expecting her to beat you. The most I was expecting her to stay ahead of you long enough to rejoin with the Black Knight. If forced to confront you I was expecting her to have to resort to the grimoire. But she beat you with nothing but a wire and her ability, which ranks as a level 2... such a resounding defeat on your part deserves some sort of commemoration I think." Aiwass pointed a finger at Accelerator's forehead and the ESPer immediately felt a great pain, as if something was being etched into his flesh with a laser, which was an accurate enough description.

"There... I think that's fairly fitting," Aiwass said as he picked up a hunk of metal off of the ground and drew his finger over it, bringing it to a high shine before tossing it to Accelerator. The sheen was such that the level five could see his reflection in the polished steel. More specifically he could see the black script on his forehead.

"נ וַיֶּחֱזַק דָּוִד מִן-הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי בַּקֶּלַע וּבָאֶבֶן, וַיַּךְ אֶת-הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי וַיְמִתֵהוּ; וְחֶרֶב, אֵין בְּיַד-דָּוִד."

"I'm going to kill you," the teenager growled in a low voice as he tried to push himself up, a fire raged in his eyes.

Aiwass grinned at this and walked over to Accelerator. He reached down and grabbed the collar of the albino's shirt and yanked him up into a stand. The sudden motion made the blood rush to his head and he stumbled a bit, his legs unsteady still from the shock. Then Aiwass pressed the piece of polished metal to the ESPer's throat, the message clear enough as the sharp edge drew a drop of blood. "A child could kill you right now and you seek to take on a god? Go home, rest, do not further waste my time with your pointless defiance."

With that said he suddenly disappeared. Accelerator punched the ground and realized that, as much as he hated to admit it, Aiwass was right. He needed to get home and get his collar charged and repaired before he even thought about going after that tuxedo wearing woman. Not only that but he had no idea how to find her, so he'd need help doing that.

Without that cheating angel's interference he would definitely beat her next time, he would destroy her and rescue Last Order, like he always did.

It was a lucky thing that the walk home was uneventful. Right now he didn't want anyone to see him. It was bad enough that he'd need to show his head around WORST and the other two people he shared the apartment with. He didn't even know what the damn thing said but he knew it was a mark of his failure (his undeserved failure, after all Aiwass had surely cheated) and thus he hated the symbols engraved in his forehead.

Finally he reached his destination, opening the front door only to see that same hat, glasses, and dumb tuxedo of the woman who had defeated them. he felt as his momentum carried him into the girl's sword.

Then, once again, the electricity tore through him. This time he didn't have his power active to make it bounce around like a superball in a tiny room and thus the electricity went straight down into the floor. It paralyzed his already unsteady muscles and made him fall forward. He felt as the sword pressed against his spine, ready to completely and permanently paralyze him in a moment's notice.

"It seems the butcher is pursuing you more persistently and with greater ability than I had first presumed Last Order. I think it would be best if we evacuated back to Kuro-sama's residence while he is disabled says the shepherd says MISAKA WORST." The moment the sentence finished and she regained control of her own mouth WORST began laughing uncontrollably.

"What are you doing nee-chan asks Misaka Misaka as she runs over to shepherd-nee-chan and Accelerator."

Oneeni looked at the little girl.

"I'm protecting you Last Order says the shepherd says MISAKA WORST." Though interrupted briefly by that WORST continued laughing.

"What's going on?" Aiho asked, even more confused, her gun now pointed towards the tuxedoed woman who had just attacked her ward.

"Oh, the shepherd can talk through the other clones and order them around. Kind of a proto-Last Order," explained Kikyou, far more calm about this than the other woman.

"That isn't what I meant. Why are you threatening him," Aiho demanded of Oneeni.

With her free hand Oneeni got her notebook out of her pocket and turned to the second page which she tossed to the Anti-Skill agent, who caught it and read it out loud. It was an official document that had been stapled to the notebook.

"Subject designation Accelerator (Codename: The Butcher) is an extremely unstable and dangerous individual. Any contact between him and the clones is likely to result in delays to the experiment as well as severe injuries to the clones. As the designated guardian of the clones The Shepherd is to avoid The Butcher and ensure that none of the clones come into contact with him before the time of their experiment."

"Explicative tone: He is a dangerous person and I'm protecting Last Order, WORST, and yourselves from harm," she typed out as Aiho was speaking.

"What the hell?! WHAT THE HELL?!" Accelerator demanded, as he heard this.

"nee-chan... put the sword down. He isn't dangerous explains Misaka Misaka as she comes to understand the situation."

Oneeni looked at her as if she was speaking a foreign language. She had been told by her mentor and others that he was dangerous, she had experienced it first-hand twice. Why did Last Order seem to think otherwise.

It was now that WORST looked again at Accelerator, "hey, what's up with your forehead? Did you and go get a tattoo while Last Order was kidnapped?" At this the rest took a look at the forehead in question. Accelerator attempted to hide it or get to his feet but he couldn't. This day was an utter nightmare. "It was that fucking angel!" he barked out.

"What language is that?" asked Kikyou, confused by the odd markings.

"Hebrew," Oneeni typed out for them, "Samuel 17:50: So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David."

Accelerator had finally had enough and pushed himself up... only to have his spinal cord severed by the sword that he had forgotten was pressed against him. Even the adrenaline and rage that had allowed him to defy the pain and paralysis could not grant him movement when the spinal cord was severed.

"Accelerator cries Misaka Misaka as she sees him fall limply against the floor and rushes to his side."

After a brief look the little girl looked back at the others and said, "he's hurt really bad. I think he needs to go to a hospital says Misaka Misaka."

Aiho walked over. "I can assure you as a member of Anti-Skill that he is under my guardianship," she explained to Oneeni who seemed unsure of what to do, "and, dangerous or not, it is my responsibility to look after him so please release him so that I can take him to a hospital." Her tone said that it was not a request, but an order.

Oneeni looked thoughtful then sheathed her sword and moved away from Accelerator, allowing the woman to pick him up. "you really are in a bad shape... come on we need to get moving fast."

"I'll help," WORST offered with a grin, wanting to go along and tease him a bit more. She had a bit more confidence in his survival (and a bit less concern for the same) than Aiho so she was not nearly as worried.

"I'll stay here and see if I can find out what exactly happened," Kikyou told Aiho.

"I'll go with Accelerator says Misaka Misaka."

"No. You'll stay here where I can keep you safe says the shepherd says Last Order." The little clone glared at Oneeni and crossed her arms, still annoyed at how she could be bossed around like that.

Once they had left Oneeni looked towards Last Order, who still looked cross and then at Kikyou who sighed.

"How about you start from the beginning," the researcher proffered.

* * *

Author's Note: This chapter was supposed to be the fourth but I decided that there wasn't enough Oneeni or action in my story so far and since those are some of my favorite things I decided to put the chapter jam packed with both of them before the other one.

I've been planning this fight for a long time. In fact if you go back to my first book and look at chapter 48 you can see the "Coming Soon" segment which says: "The Shepherd versus The Butcher, the vengeance of the sacrificial flock" which will tell you just how long I've been planning this fight. Going back and looking at those really tells you just how long some of these events have been planned. It amazes me at times...

Anyway, about how Oneeni wins... I'm sure several people will protest so here I present my reasoning for why her method is valid. My proof for the effectiveness of this tactic is twofold and thusly: firstly, Accelerator's shield cannot do anything against a stationary object. This was shown in the fight against 9982 when she planted a mine and he activated it. While it didn't work because the expansion of air and shrapnel do have vectors, it demonstrated that he was capable of tripping a mine via pressure sensors, meaning his body interacts with stationary objects as would any other, quod est demonstratum tripwires would work against him. secondly Accelerator's shield redirects all vectors indiscriminately, with or without the nerfing effect of the collar, as shown in his fight against Kihara Amata. This means, as shown in this fight between him and Amata, an attack which is going in the opposite direction of his body is instead pulled towards his body by his shield (which takes the form of a layer around his skin). I assume this would also apply to attacks originating from inside of his body would just bounce around until it either killed him or injured him enough to disable his ability (which I assume happens when he sleeps or is knocked unconscious, though this is the only thing which I do not have proof from canon of).

On a side note, as I was writing this I noticed just how perfect "We Will Rock You" was as XLR8R's theme song.


	4. Toaru Kaigi no Kazoku

とある会議の家族

Toaru Kaigi no Kazoku

A Certain Meeting of the Family

* * *

November 23rd, 6:15AM

Tokiwadai Exterior Dormitories

Kuroko was currently stuck with quite the conundrum. She had just woken up, or rather been woken up, by her Onee-sama's electricity. She looked over at the clock and it was quite early, too early to wake the electro master up with a kiss. She figured it would be a good use of her time to make them some breakfast though, and that was where the conundrum came in. Kuroko was loathe to move from this grip but at the same time she wanted to do something for her room mate and her love. She hadn't taken care of her Onee-sama for a long time and she really missed doing so... but at the same time she also hadn't just snuggled with her in a while and she missed doing that as well.

The conundrum was solved when she recalled they would be having lunch with Misaka's parents today so a large breakfast was unnecessary, but it did bring up a question of what to do tomorrow and the next day.

Such mindless debate of trivialities was not truly of note but it did annoy Kuroko's mental cohabitant. Ever since Russia when the two souls had gotten closer they had become a little more aware of each other. Whereas before they couldn't hear much of what the other was thinking they could now get general ideas through their mental link, causing Kuro to get a little annoyed at Shiro. _"Pereskia this, pereskia that. Don't you have other things to worry about? Like Aleister's warning yesterday."_

Shiro summoned the mask to her armor to prevent her talking from waking up her Onee-sama. While they could get general ideas from each other talking was still the most effective method of communication. "You aren't saying that because you're concerned about the warning... you're saying that because you're worried you won't get any more time with Oneeni now that I'm back in control."

"_That isn't it at all,"_ Kuro protested.

Shiro rolled her eyes. It was a two way street, this mental link, much as Kuro could tell that her mind was full of her Onee-sama she could tell that Kuro's mind was full of her clone. "It is a bit of a problem... I would introduce them but... Onee-sama said that she'd hate to meet her clone, that she'd be disgusted and want the clone to disappear. I can't introduce them, even if I want to."

"_So what do you plan to do?"_

"It would be unfair to say you can't see Oneeni anymore. I want you to be happy. But it is a bit of an issue... Plus I did promise to have no more secrets from Onee-sama and I don't want to have to break that promise."

"_If she never asks and it never comes up then not telling her wouldn't be the same as keeping a secret. We'll just have to be smart."_

"Ok... but for today at least, while I meet Onee-sama's parents, I want complete control."

"_I'm hardly that unreasonable Shiro..."_

'Parents...' Kuroko thought. There would be a lot of them visiting over the next few days. Almost every parent who could afford it (and cared about their kid) would petition to visit during the Daihesei and Ichinasei festivals. With all that had gone on in Academy City in the past several months even parents who would normally not even petition would do so out of worry for their child.

Despite the number of petitions very few actually got in. She remembered Uiharu mentioned back during the Daihesei how her parents petitioned every year, despite the fact that they couldn't really afford it, and yet had never gotten ok'ed. Saten's had never visited either, despite their multiple attempts.

It would be a nice gift to them if she could move them up the list. She switched channels on her mouthpiece until she got to the one that she had established with Willow. Then she put in her earpiece as she spoke, "Willow, can you do me a favor? Can you hack into the visitor requests and add the families of Uiharu Kazari and Saten Ruiko?"

"Theoretically I could, but it's easier to just use your authorization as a director to do so," was the response, "I guess I'll do that for you... the only problem is that the request list is full. Some people will need to be removed in order to add them."

"If Touma's family is on there you can remove them, then just choose the other person at random."

"Ok, done. Anything else? Perhaps something worth my time?"

"Nope, sorry."

"Typical..." Willow sighed, as much as a computer can sigh, and cut the line of communication.

* * *

With that done and her conversation with Kuro effectively finished, Shiro dismissed the mouthpiece of her helmet and snuggled deeper into Misaka's embrace. The electro-master, as if detecting this, hugged the girl in her arms even tighter, an act that would have been quite pleasant if not for the harsh zap that coincided... actually it was still pleasant, zap or not.

Misaka awoke soon after and was greeted by a good morning kiss, prompt as ever, from Kuroko. She returned the kiss as much as her tired body would let her, but ended up breaking it when she had to yawn.

The teleporter, ever unperturbed when it came to displays of affection, simply kissed her collarbone, causing a slight noise of pleasure to slip out along with the yawn, causing the older girl to blush and push Kuroko's head away. She was about to sputter out something when she was interrupted by a cheery "good morning" from her girlfriend. Misaka sighed and returned it, hugging the smaller girl to her once again as she remembered just why and how much she had missed doing this.

"I'm meeting your parents today," Kuroko reminded her, "as your girlfriend."

"You don't have to sound so pleased about it," Misaka reprimanded the teleporter weakly, a little embarrassed at just how happy the younger girl sounded.

"But I am pleased. After all these months I finally get to be introduced as your girlfriend to somebody... why wouldn't I be excited?" Kuroko explained.

It took only a second to see the underlying feelings in that statement and the guilty followed quicker than that. "Sorry I've been acting so ashamed of you before now... I really am sorry." She apologized.

The auburn haired girl waved it off with a smile, like usual. "It's fine. What's past is past, it does no good to linger on it. Let's focus on what's ahead of us ok Onee-sama?"

"Right..." Misaka agreed hesitantly, "the reservation is for 12 at Posogante, you want to walk or teleport?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to walk on your own. I still have a bit of business to finish up before that. But don't worry, I'll definitely be there on time," Kuroko informed her.

"What business?"

"Just some more stuff with Aleister-sama, it shouldn't take too long. I was thinking of going around 11, when you'd have to leave to get to Posogante on time if you're walking."

Misaka looked at the clock and saw that it was still quite early and they had a few more hours left. Even if she took an hour to get ready (which she never did) they still had a couple of hours to burn before that time. "So what were you planning on doing?"

Suddenly the electro master heard a sensual whisper in her ear as it said, "guess..."

She blushed and zapped Kuroko for the as she stood up, "jeez... is that all you think about? I never should have agreed to do it the first time..."

Kuroko frowned, having hoped that would work and disappointed that it didn't. She noted that the shock was less harsh than it typically would've been for such an action and guessed that that meant her Onee-sama was being more careful, which was a good thing, or wasn't as opposed to the idea as she let on, which was a better thing. The second option was not improbable, but if she pushed for it and was wrong then Misaka would be angry at her, which would be a detriment to the meeting, which needed to go perfectly.

She'd press it another time, but for now she simply stood up on legs that were still shaking slightly from the shock and gave her Onee-sama a hug. "If you don't want to do that then how about we rehearse what we're going to say at lunch?"

"Rehearse? We don't need to rehearse," Misaka protested, "I don't want it to be scripted like that."

"But what if I mess up and say something that makes your parents hate me?" Kuroko asked, clearly worried.

"They won't hate you... just be yourself," Misaka said comfortingly as she turned to stroke Kuroko's hair and return the hug, "they really are nice people and I'm sure they'll love you."

Kuroko looked up at her, "what about you? When the time comes will you be able to say, 'this is Kuroko, my girlfriend' without choking up?"

"O-of course," the older girl stuttered as an even deeper blush overtook her face.

The younger girl looked up at her skeptically in response. "Perhaps we should practice it. Just to make sure. That way I get to hear it a lot as well."

Misaka rolled her eyes, "so that was your angle... Fine, whatever. I'm going to go have a shower first though."

"Yes, that sounds lovely. Let's go," Kuroko smiled as she began to go towards the bathroom when she felt Misaka's hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

"I never said you could join me. Even though last time you said you wouldn't let your hands wander, guess what they did?"

"Onee-sama," the younger girl whined, "it was an accident."

"Accidents don't happen five times a minute Kuroko," Misaka said testily, "I'm going in alone."

The teleporter looked absolutely devastated. "But... Onee-sama... please... I'll do better this time, please," she begged.

For a moment Misaka's resolve wavered then she sighed and came to a decision. She held out her hand, "handcuffs."

Kuroko looked confused for a second and then realized what was going on. The devastated look left her face to be replaced by one of happiness as she handed Misaka the handcuffs and turned around to let the older girl cuff her hands behind her back. It was a fair compromise and a worthwhile sacrifice to make to feel the pure bliss of being so close to Onee-sama while she was having a shower.

* * *

Several minutes later Kuroko was rubbing her wrists as Misaka held her on her lap and brushed the smaller girl's hair. 'You and your mixed signals...' the teleporter sighed internally even as she revelled in the closeness. A wide smile broke out across her face as Misaka, while still brushing the younger girl's hair, began attempting to say "This is Kuroko, my girlfriend," without stuttering. Every time she said it, even partially, the grin got wider.

This practice continued as Misaka put Kuroko's hair up in the bows and then they switched so that Kuroko was doing Misaka's hair. Finally, after many failed attempts and a few successful ones it was time for Misaka to go.

Kuroko regretted this necessity but she knew that she still had work to do, and the faster she did it the faster they could be together again. So she got dressed and disappeared as Misaka did the same.

Misaka's blush lasted for about a quarter of an hour or so, more than a mile, before it began to die down. It had been an extremely embarrassing morning... but not an unenjoyable one. A bit of embarrassment was worth it at times, especially when the embarrassing action brought such happiness to another person.

After another half an hour her mind eventually left the events of that morning, killing any lingering hints of the blush, as she began to wonder what was going to happen at the restaurant. Did Okaa-san really want to apologize to her? Should she apologize herself? She had, after all, overreacted to things hadn't she?

She'd apologize if her mother did, she decided as she walked down the street.

Suddenly she saw a couple people who she hadn't expected to see here. She ran up to them. "Papa, Okaa-san? What are you doing here?"

"Ah, Mikoto, we were just heading to the restaurant," her father explained looking at her and then behind her, as if looking if there was someone else, "it's nice to see you again."

"The restaurant is that way," she said and pointed to the direction they had come from.

Misuzu sighed, "I told you we were lost... Why do men always insist on consulting maps instead of just asking someone for directions."

Tabigake frowned and blushed slightly at this particular embarrassment, "right... well then. Lead on." he said to Misaka as he stepped aside.

'Papa... Okaa-san... so those are her parents huh?' thought The Hanged Man as he watch the proceedings from a short ways away, 'it's truly terrible to live with the death of a child... They might not be on the list but perhaps it would be more merciful to kill them as well.' The onlooker pushed a button on the remote in his hand.

* * *

Misaka's power warned her of the sudden movement with just enough time to tackle her parents out of the way of the 2 cars that had just crashed down on their previous location. She looked back to see two massive blobs made of a material that looked like liquid mirrors given how shiny it was. The reflectiveness of it made it incredibly disorienting to look at. Even if you ignored the blinding light it shone into the eyes of anyone who looked at it, the reflective surface made it next to impossible to judge how far away you were from it. If it were not for Misaka's powers she couldn't have dodged it even if she knew it was coming, like fighting in a house of mirrors when it was the mirrors themselves that wanted to kill you.

The blobs reared up, as if a snake preparing to strike. Misaka grabbed the crumpled cars with magnetism and smashed them into the blobs, causing the tendrils of liquid metal to double back into the main body, but otherwise the attack seemed to do nothing. The blobs continued to lurch towards them slowly but steadily.

"Run," Misaka called out to her parents as she desperately smashed the cars against the blobs, hoping to slow them down, a goal she was only partially successful in. The effort didn't last long before the blobs caught the cars in their liquid metal tendrils and crushed them completely with their immense weight.

Tabigake was torn by what to do. He didn't want to leave his daughter to fight these things... but he was pretty sure they were after him so if he ran then they would chase him and leave Mikoto alone, on the other hand there was a small risk that they were after his little girl instead, and if that was the case then leaving wouldn't serve to lure these things away and he would just be abandoning his daughter when she was in danger, and he could never do that and look her in the eye again, assuming she even managed to make it out alive...

Luckily the decision was made by his wife, who, having no such suspicions that these things were after them (why would they be attacking a housewife and a businessman?), said, "we're not about to leave you to deal with this on your own. Either you run with us or we stay."

Normally a mix of stubbornness and concern would have made Misaka protest this with every fibre of her being, but she had similar thoughts to her father, thinking that they were after her but unwilling to leave her parents alone in case she was wrong, so instead she decided that it was best to stay with them as they suggested. However, her concern for her parents safety did cause her to make a decision she normally would never make willingly.

She tore up every street lamp from the ground and shot it into the ground in criss-crosses between them and the blobs then turned around, "Then I'll run with you," she said as she began to sprint away from the scene.

She didn't get far before her exit path was cut off by another blob, stretched long to block the entire width of the street. She thought about throwing another car at it to make a path but that would put them within reach of the thing and she wasn't willing to risk their lives with nothing but the hope that it would be too slow to crush them.

Unfortunately now they found themselves surrounded. Misaka looked at the buildings around them and was distressed to see that they were brick and mortar without any metal in sight to let her climb. There was no water to form into wings either. In other words they were completely trapped. She needed to fight, and more importantly figure out who was doing this, she needed to figure out who dared to try and hurt her parents. And once she had figured it out she needed to make them pay...

Tabigake watched as his daughter took a deep breath, seemingly overcoming the slight panic that had been gripping her just a second before and turned around, not towards them but towards the two other blobs behind them, who had crushed the street lamp barrier as if it were rice paper. The man felt the phone in his pocket heat up as tendrils of electricity snaked out from his daughter's hair in a far more controlled fashion than they had during yesterdays outburst. He then heard a slight pop from the pocket his cell phone was in as she approached and then went past them. "Stay there, I'll take care of this," she said, in a calm but terrifying tone oddly reminiscent of the one he used yesterday when the topic of boyfriends came up.

A normal person would have shut up right then and there but he had used that voice enough to not be intimidated, and was about to protest when he heard a loud crack from behind him. He turned to see as the single long blob at the end of the street as it was bombarded by lightning from above despite the completely clear sky. The bright flashes and loud accompany booms of thunder made it hard to look at so he turned around again to see as his little girl walked out to about halfway between them and the blobs, fishing around in her pocket for something as lightning snaked out along the street, grabbing at the crushed, discarded cars and street lamps as well as anything metal and everything metal that they could touch.

Tabigake could only stare in wonder as things weighing hundreds of pounds each lifted from the ground as if they were made of helium and shot towards one of the metal blobs with the speed of javelins as they began to pummel the liquid from all sides, not giving it a chance to move or to capture the pieces of metal under it's mass.

The other one she casually raised a fist to. She flipped what appeared to be a coin up into the air. When it came back all he saw was a flash of light and the crack of a minor explosion as the coin shot forward so fast that a trail of plasma was left behind. When it hit the blob the metal exploded back, punching a large hole in its mass.

The hole closed quickly however and the blob continued lurching forward. Misaka frowned and reached back into her pocket, picking out all of the coins and floating them in the air with her magnetism.

She was really drained at the moment with all the power she was using, but she didn't notice or care. Right now she had a single goal in mind, to protect her parents and punish the person that was trying to hurt them. Anything else, like her ever increasing exhaustion or counting the number of goals she had, was irrelevant.

'It was 9 shots a minute last SYSTEM_SCAN,' Misaka thought, 'lets see if we can't speed that up a bit.'

Tabigake knew his daughter was a level five, and he somewhat understood what that meant. He had heard of what her power was and had a rough idea of what she could do with it. He also knew of her nickname, "The Railgun" and knew the function and capability of such devices.

However, even with all that knowledge he could not help but be utterly amazed with what he saw next. One after the other coins moved towards her finger and, with a single flick, she sent them speeding along at several times the speed of sound, easily punching holes the size of bicycle tires every couple seconds into a mass of metal so large it could probably overwhelm and crush a tank. He saw another blob being swatted down by sheets and chunks and poles of metal as if it were nothing more than a particularly troublesome fly. The third, he briefly glanced to check, was in an even worse state. The heat from the constant barrage of lightning bolts had caused it to turn molten red. It seemed to swell from the heat and hadn't moved an inch, as if it were incapable of doing so.

Misaka seemed to notice this and began to think about what it could mean. She could vaguely detect a signal from a remote control going to the blobs so she knew that they weren't moving by the power of any ESPer or Magician, meaning it's movements would follow the natural laws of the universe. Metal expanded easily with heat, so if it expanded enough it could jam whatever mechanism allowed it to move, or possibly the heat just fried whatever electrical components received the data.

With that information she stopped her relentless attacks on the other two and waited a little while. Despite all the damage they pulled themselves together. It seemed heat was the only way to disable them. She focused as much power as could to turn them into glowing red heaps as well. While she did this she looked around for bio-electrical signals that might indicate the presence of another person.

As it turns out she didn't need, to. She could see a man walk out of an alley in front of her and point a gun at her. The man was quite tall and had tan skin of middle eastern descent, Turkey to be exact but Misaka did not know or care about this piece of trivia. He wore a long lab coat and goggles. He sighed and spoke in an accented voice, saying, "All this amazing technology I've created and I still need to resort to such primitive methods as firearms... what a waste."

Misaka barely had time to comprehend this before her vision was blocked by the body of her father as he stood in front of her. Her mother wrapped her arms around her protectively, willing and ready to take any bullet that was meant for her daughter herself.

"How dare you point a gun at my daughter," Tabigake roared, pulling out his own gun and pointing it at the man.

The Hanged Man didn't have time or patience to point out that every girl was somebody's daughter and that his was nothing special. He understood why the man was upset and sympathized with him, it was in fact why he was doing this posturing, rather than killing her with the gun from safe behind the corner... well that and the fact that he was useless with a gun. He had trouble hitting the broad side of a barn with it. But the main reason wasn't that, it was the fact that had know her parents would run up and protect her from the gun, even if such an action would cost them their own lives... and indeed it would, but now they could at least hold each other when they died, and neither parent nor child would have to watch the other die, a suffering The Hanged Man couldn't bring himself to inflict when there was another option. They would all die in a moment, it was kindest to let them die together.

Misaka knew her parents loved her more than anything, she knew she shouldn't be surprised at their actions here, but she still found herself a little shocked at how quickly and without hesitation that they had thrown themselves in the bullet's path. The surprise lasted maybe a second, not because it wasn't something she should be surprised about, but rather because something else took up all her attention at that moment. She looked up barely in time to see another metal blob falling from the roof of the building beside them directly onto her and her parents.

She barely had time to register the fact that there was no way to escape being crushed before the massive blob of liquid metal hit the ground with a massive crash of cracking asphalt and the somewhat more softer but far more visceral sound of snapping bones and crushed flesh as she watched the impact send dust and debris into the air and whizzing by Misaka's ear.

* * *

It took a second for Misaka to wonder how she could possibly see the thing collide with the ground if she had been under it. It took another second for the dust to settle enough to reveal the silhouette of a familiar shape as it turned around. Another second saw the dust settle enough to reveal the outline and then the form of Kuroko as she took a couple of steps towards The Hanged Man and rammed her head into his stomach, causing him to double over. She then jerked her head upward, catching him under the chin. Then she finished off with a simple yet effective headbutt to the face that caused him to fall unconscious. A second later she disappeared, reappearing instantaneously in front of Misaka and looking at her with a worried face, "Onee-sama are you okay?"

It was only upon being asked this question that Misaka realized just how tired she was. However it didn't last long as her attention was immediately drawn to Kuroko's arms, or rather... the place where her arms should be. Everything above the elbow of one arm was gone while the other had a shattered bone and bits off flesh hanging off of it. She also noticed, as an afterthought, that the bits of light that filled the gaps of the skin when the arms were still intact were exactly where they always were, unperturbed by the fact that the surrounding flesh was no longer there.

"Kuroko, your arms," the electro master gasped squeamishly when she saw this.

"Huh?" the teleporter said as she looked down, "Oh..." the word was said so completely dismissively and free from care, it sounded more like she was being told that she had a hangnail rather than two missing limbs. The most she did was teleport a couple small discs of metal in to stop the bleeding and then her attention was back to her Onee-sama, "I'll be fine in a little while, more importantly what about you?" The concern that the younger girl should have had for herself shone in her eyes as she looked Misaka over, "I'm so sorry for taking so long. If I... If we..."

"Never mind about that we have to get you to a hospital."

"I'll call an ambulance," Misuzu said, just as panicked as her daughter upon seeing this.

"Won't work. Our cell phones were burnt out by the electricity," Tabigake explained, sounding about as worried as Kuroko seemed to be, almost as if he knew that the injury wasn't as major as it looked.

"Mine's functioning," Misaka said, knowing that hers was shielded against electricity and getting it out of her pocket.

"I'm fine," Kuroko assured her, "please don't worry. Don't let this ruin everything..." she looked up at the two adults, "Onee-sama said you were going to Posogante correct? You just need to turn right at the end of this street and just take the second street to your right, you should see the sign after a little while. We'll join you shortly."

"But..." Misuzu began when her husband placed a hand on her shoulder.

"There's nothing we can do," Tabigake said to his wife then looked at his daughter, "we'll leave this to you. Text us if you can't make it, otherwise we'll see you there."

Mikoto nodded as she turned back to Kuroko. She was pretty sure the teleporter was just putting on a brave face in front of her parents. Maybe once they left she'd accept her help.

* * *

The two began walking, Misuzu frequently looking back in worry but allowing her husband to lead her away from the scene.

Tabigake could tell his wife was upset, and he was too. He definitely needed to get to the bottom of this, but that was a matter for another time. Right now he needed to be strong and calm for his wife and daughter.

"Our daughter's really... something isn't she? That power... I knew she was a level five but I never really stopped to think what that mean," Tabigake said as he walked along.

"Oh, yeah you didn't see her demonstration last year at the Ichinasei..." Misuzu replied, slightly distracted still by what had just happened. Her husband's calm, unperturbed demeanour helped relax her as always but she was still in a state of shock.

"Yeah..." the man sighed, "Something came up and I had to miss it... and her power completely ruined the camera so I couldn't even see it second hand."

"The demonstration was nothing like that though... Sure it was quite the spectacle but it was like a spark of static compared to what we just saw," she told him remembering the sheer power that her daughter had just displayed.

"That's what happens when you're trying to protect the people you care about. We get strength enough to move mountains."

"Or to ignore the pain of having one's arms torn clean off," Misuzu added as she remembered the girl who had saved all of their lives, "I think we've discovered who our daughter's girlfriend is..."

"Most probably. She was always talking about her in her phone calls."

"She's her best friend. It makes sense that she'd want to play romance with her. They're even room mates so it's quite convenient," the woman reasoned, still sure that it was nothing more than that. She actually thought it was a good thing, that playing romance at a younger age helped prepare you for real romance in the future. The only thing that she was wary about was that she might form an identity around something that only ended up being a phase, an identity which could cause her quite a bit of agony. She had just wanted to comfort her daughter yesterday, to tell her that just because she liked a girl right now didn't mean that she was a freak, to tell her that it was normal and it didn't mean that she was gay. If she did end up being gay then Misuzu would accept her completely, but she just felt that her daughter was too young to know for sure yet.

"She seems like a good kid," Tabigake remarked offhandedly.

"I didn't really get a chance to talk to her during the Daihesei... Mikoto seemed to deliberately try and get me away from her. Looking back on it she was probably embarrassed. Given how she was so willing to throw herself in harms way to protect us and given how her first priority after doing so was to check on how Mikoto was doing I'd say she's a pretty good girl. She's quite a cute kid as well. Our daughter always loved cute things..." Misuzu continued on as they finally arrived at the restaurant

* * *

Once the pair of adults had turned the corner and gone out of sight Misaka began to go back to panicking when she saw something strange. "Kuroko... your blood... why has it turned black?'

"_Magic Pereskia," _Kuro said, taking a deep breath and concentrating.

Suddenly something clicked, "wait.. all those times you said that something was magic... you actually meant it?"

"_Indeed we did. Shiro doesn't like lying so she tried to tell the truth when she could. Luckily the truth is so unbelievable that no one listened anyway."_ Kuro explained as the black blood began flowing upwards, towards the girl's wounds, gathering around the flesh near the breaking point and also around the still present spots of glowing energy. _"This is the second most useful aspect of my magic. Regeneration... or at least something like it."_

"But... if you can regenerate then why are you hurt?" Misaka asked, surprised how she took the concept in stride by this point.

"_Because it isn't exactly regeneration. As you can see, rather than growing my arms back, it's more like they're repairing themselves... coming back together one drop of blood at a time," _Kuro waved her arms, which now looked like a bunch of floating blood vessels, to demonstrate as bits of bone and muscle now began reintegrating themselves, _"My body is frozen in one point of time and my magic makes sure it goes back to that point if something like an injury causes it to divert. Unfortunately that Neanderthal, as Shiro calls him, is capable of resetting the magic, making my body reset its default state to whichever one it is now in. In other words if someone punched me in the nose it would go back, if he punched me in the nose it would stay broken and never heal... unless of course Az did something." _Kuro visibly shuddered at that name.

"Az?" Misaka asked.

"_He goes by Heaven Canceller nowadays. Anyway, he can reverse it, but if he does I need to heal naturally. Which is why I was in a wheelchair for so long during the Daihesei, because he touched me and I couldn't regenerate. Anyway... when Apep, the giant snake thing, came out the flesh that it touched was destroyed completely, so my body had nothing to call back, which is why it can't heal. It's also why my mana is nigh constantly being drained by a considerable amount..." _

Misaka shook her head as she looked at Kuroko's now mostly repaired arms, "you've lost me... but I suppose it doesn't really matter. I'm just glad that you're fine."

Kuro nodded as she finished regenerating, looking almost as good as new, though the sleeves of the uniform were still shredded. "Do you need to go home and change?" Misaka asked.

"_No... Remember how I said that regeneration was the second most useful aspect of my magic. Kiss me and I'll show you the most useful..."_

Misaka looked confused for a second then remembered that she needed a kiss to transform and went up to do so, however she suddenly stopped before getting there. "Hold on a second... I thought that ESPers could do magic."

"_I'm not an ESPer. Shiro is. I do magic, she does the teleportation. Since the thing I'm going to show you is a mix of the two either of us can utilize it and she has an easier time doing so than I do."_

"But if that's true then how did you do both at the Windowless Building?"

"_To be honest I don't really know. Things were confusing back then... We could switch rapidly without a kiss which we can no longer do."_

It was a bit suspicious but... it wasn't like Misaka didn't want to kiss her, so she stepped up and gave her girlfriend a quick peck (doing more on a random street would be too embarrassing) and then stepped back to watch. She saw Kuroko smile as emotion and light returned to her eye then saw her damaged school uniform disappear to be replaced by a new one. "How did you do that? That's a complete violation of conservation of mass?" she asked astonished.

"Not really... I didn't create it out of thin air... I stored it, and a lot of other things, in these," she explained as she showed her the talisman that created the Horn of Gabriel effect, "and just recalled it again when I needed it. I can explain it in detail another time though, we wouldn't want to keep your parents waiting now would we?"

* * *

"Umm... sorry for the delay," Misaka said nervously to her parents as she walked up to the table.

"It's no big deal... is your friend ok?" Misuzu asked, worried about the little girl.

"I'm fine," Kuroko said peeking around Misaka to smile at them, her arm fully intact.

"Before we go any farther... I..." Misaka began before taking a deep breath, "this is Kuroko, my girlfriend."

"Is that so," Misuzu said neutrally as she smiled at Kuroko who herself looked positively ecstatic at hearing this. It was actually kind of cute how happy she looked.

She stepped out from behind Misaka and bowed at the two, "yes, I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused you and your daughter but please take care of me." she said politely. Kuroko was nervous but the happiness was drowning out that anxiety. She had a formal and very polite tone and seemed to be picking her words carefully.

"We've caused you more trouble today than the other way around," Tabikake said, "so please, don't worry about it."

Mikoto sat down and Kuroko settled next to her. A particularly perceptive person would notice the tension in her shoulders from having to hold herself back from getting closer to her Onee-sama, but she knew she couldn't afford to mess this up.

"So tell us a little bit about yourself Kuroko-chan," Misuzu said somewhat playfully, "we've heard about you from Mikoto but..." she trailed off, unsure how to say the next part without sounding offensive.

"It's mostly bad things?" Kuroko filled in for her, "yeah I know. Most of what people say about me isn't very positive, I'm a hard person to like. But trust me when I say I do it all because I care about your daughter and, to a lesser degree, this city."

"She's told us that before too," Misuzu said with a smile as she looked at her daughter who was blushing and looking at the floor as if trying to stare a hole in it big enough to crawl into, "by the "care for the city" bit are you referring to your job in Judgment?"

"Among other things," Kuroko nodded in agreement.

"Do you enjoy your work for them?"

"Very much so. It's a joy to be able to help people, even with all the paperwork and drudgery in between."

Misuzu giggled, "a lot of jobs are like that... enjoyable bits buried under a mountain of paperwork you need to get through first. So tell us... does our little girl get in much trouble with you guys?"

The electro master's mother could practically see the smile freeze on the younger girl's face as her mind raced at how to answer that question.

"She does not get into much trouble with **Judgment **recently..." The teleporter answered quickly but after incredible mental gymnastics.

"Implying she does get into trouble with other people," the mother pursued. Her daughter obviously didn't fill them in on every little thing and seemed particularly inclined to avoid talking about any of her wrongdoings. They used to be able to keep track of her based on the bill that was sent to them each month for property damages she accrued, but that had stopped several months ago. She had presumed that meant Mikoto had stopped causing damage but it had seemed a bit sudden.

Again the mental strain was clearly visible in Kuroko's eyes, "she's... worth it?" the teleporter defended weakly. Mikoto glared at the two of them angrily.

Misuzu sighed as she looked at her daughter, "and here I thought you were finally calming down."

"I am," Misaka defended, "name me one crime I've committed in the past month," she demanded of Kuroko.

"High treason comes to mind," the teleporter whispered, out loud she said, "she really is calming down. She sometimes gets caught in unfortunate circumstances where elements out of her control force her to cause people trouble, but she doesn't intentionally seek out conflict or anything. She's more unlucky than anything else."

Misuzu laughed again, "she's lucky to have a friend like you."

"Girlfriend," Kuroko reminded. She had fought hard for that title and she wasn't about to let anyone forget it.

"Sorry, girlfriend," Misuzu corrected, somewhat offhandedly. Not enough for Misaka to detect but Kuroko was a little more sensitive to such things. Misuzu still wasn't completely willing to admit that it was a serious relationship, she doubted she would unless it lasted through their teen years, a very unlikely scenario.

"So you're in the same school as Misaka correct? Tokiwadai," Misuzu asked Kuroko, switching gears.

"Yes, year one."

"Are you excited for this Ichinasei festival? Do you have any family coming to visit?"

"I don't have a family... never have really. The only time I know of when I've been in close proximity to my parents is at my birth, and I'm sure they would have done that by remote control if they could," Kuroko shrugged, trying to keep her voice upbeat and nonchalant despite the bitterness she felt.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that," Misuzu apologized hastily.

"Don't be. It's not like it would matter here anyway. In Academy City your classmates, colleagues, and friends become your family, so in that sense I have a great family most of whom probably will come to visit, given that our school is having the festival on the 25th while the others are having them a bit later..."

"Hmmm? Is that why you call Mikoto Onee-sama?" Misuzu mused

Kuroko and Misaka both blushed, albeit for different reasons. "No...not quite..." the teleporter began, "it's kind of a tradition at our school to call senpai who you have particular respect or admiration for Onee-sama."

'I always hated that tradition,' Misaka thought. Given that she as a level five, the Ace of Tokiwadai, she had had so many people calling her that, and she hated it so much each time, not that anyone knew that besides Kuroko, who had just used that information to annoy her.

"Mikoto always wanted to have a younger brother or sister," the older woman noted with an almost imperceptible tinge of sadness. While Kuroko knew that the whole "Onee-sama" thing had original upset Misaka she had never really known the meaning behind it. In truth the electro master had almost been a big sister.

* * *

It had been several years ago when Misaka was only four years old. After the bundle of joy that was their first child, Misuzu was quick to decide to make another one and after a couple years of trying she had finally gotten pregnant again. She had been very happy and told the young Misaka that she would soon be an older sister.

The toddler had been thrilled when she heard about this. "When's my baby sister going to come?" She had demanded to know as she shimmied up her mother's leg to crawl onto her lap.

"Not for quite a few months dear. And it might be a baby brother," Her mother chuckled as she helped the young girl onto her lap.

"What's my baby sister's name?" She asked, adamant that it would be a little girl rather than a stinky, cooty-ridden boy.

"If it's a girl I think I'll call her... Tsuki. If it's a boy... Rin," she decided. Tabigake had picked out Mikoto for their first child, so it was only fair that she got to decide what their second would be called.

During the following month Mikoto did little else but talk about her future little sister. She talked about how she would teach her how to swing on the swings and tie her shoes and play all the little games that Misaka played with the other children, she talked about how she would protect her little sister from bugs and dogs and mean kids. She constantly boasted about how she would be the best big sister ever.

So when, at the end of the month, Misuzu had miscarried, Mikoto had been utterly devastated by the news. She had cried the whole day. As if that wasn't enough Misuzu had been told that she was infertile and that the chance of her ever having a child was astronomically high. Just having Mikoto had been a miracle, asking for another one was just asking for disappointment. Eventually Misuzu had moved on, but Mikoto had never completely moved past the loss of the sibling that could have been. Whenever she was called Onee-sama at school it just reminded her of her want for a younger sister and the fact that she didn't have one. These girls who called her Onee-sama weren't her younger sisters, they were her kouhai and nothing would ever change that.

Eventually, with the introduction of Kuroko into the equation, the word had become enshrouded in more good memories than bad and when "real" younger sisters in the form of the clones came around she had finally been satisfied.

* * *

Back in the present Misuzu was moving on to her next question as the drinks arrived.

"Do you know what you want to do when you grow up?"

"Well I figure I keep on working until I'm 18 then I can retire and focus on starting a family."

"A housewife eh? That's what Mikoto put down for her future aspirations when she was 8 years old," Misuzu said fondly and the girl in question blushed deeper still.

"I think that was 6 years old actually... 8 was bride wasn't it? Right after the princess thing when she was 7," Tabikake corrected, revelling in his own fond memories.

Kuroko meanwhile was smiling so damn widely with that stupid far off look in her eye. Misaka touched her thigh and electrocuted her, venting her embarrassment in the usual manner, albeit far more discreetly than it usually was. Her parents were too busy reminiscing to notice the twitches of pain from their guest and by the time Misaka had brought them back to earth by clearing her throat, the electro master had removed her hand from the teleporter's lap and Kuroko had recovered from the pain.

Misuzu continued to smile but she had realized the implication of the younger girl's words. The girl wanted to be a wife, meaning she knew she was just playing romance with Misaka and would someday move on and marry someone else. The auburn haired girl knew this relationship wouldn't last. She obviously wasn't just leading the girl on or anything like that, she did seem to genuinely care about Misaka to a great degree, but perhaps it was the teleporter's maturity that let her realize just how unlikely this was to ever work out in the long term whereas their daughter seemed to think that it would.

Still... Misuzu could tell that the younger girl cared enough so as to never hurt her little girl, and she supposed that was all that mattered with puppy love like this.

She continued to ask questions and get to know her daughter's girlfriend, teasing Mikoto every now and then as usual, partly to make it less awkward, a necessary task considering her husbands sombre, contemplative silence throughout most of the conversation.

She really should tell him off for that later. At least she was making an effort to show that she was open and accepting of her daughter and trying to at least act like she didn't think that this was all just a temporary thing. Granted it was her who had brought it up and made Mikoto angry in the first place so it was mostly her that needed to do this in order to apologize... but still, a little support would be fine, he should have at least acted as intimidating as he would have if this was a boyfriend to show that they were taking things seriously...

The meal passed without incident. Once it was over and the bill was paid they began to leave. The plan had been, if things had gone well, to invite her to do more things, but their daughter looked both mentally and physically exhausted and, though the electro master made an offer to continue the outing out of courtesy, and perhaps a bit of disregard for her health, but Misuzu and Tabigake declined. "You look like you could use some rest dear," she said, "to be honest we could as well isn't that right honey?" she looked over at Tabigake who immediately nodded, "We'll be there at your festival and we can continue to hang out after that. OK?"

"That sounds good Okaa-san, thank you." she smiled.

Kuroko bowed, "Thank you for meeting me, I had a nice time." she said politely.

"It was nice meeting you as well," Misuzu replied equally politely, bowing as well.

"Take care of our daughter for us," Tabigake told Kuroko in a polite tone of voice that hid the steel of the words that suggested that it was more of an order than a request and trouble would follow if it were not done.

"I will," Kuroko assured him, her own tone a repeat of what it had been last night when she had told the man that she would give her life to protect the electro master if necessary.

With that the pair left and Misaka and Kuroko looked at each other. "That wasn't so bad... I told you they'd love you."

Kuroko nodded and suddenly said, "I'm going to pass out in a second. I think I over exhausted myself. Do you mind carrying me home?"

"Do you need to go to a hospital," Misaka asked, concerned.

"No, I just need some rest. You're tired yourself so I can see if I can make it back but I don't think I can and I'm just warning you so you don't worry whe-" Kuroko collapsed mid-sentence, leaving Misaka barely enough time to catch her. The sudden weight, tiny though it may be, caused the older girl's legs to give out. She realized she was about to pass out as well as stars entered her vision. She had been ignoring her fatigue for far too long but now that all of her business was over and she was safe she finally gave in to her body's scream for respite.

* * *

Between the Lines: 1

A few seconds after the pair collapsed Tabigake, who had come back to the street to make a telephone call after telling his wife to go back without him, rushed over. "dammit... I knew she overexerted herself back there," he said as he ran over to check they were ok, "This is probably all his fault. That damn Aleister, probably trying to get rid of me rather than let me retire... just like the Yakuza."

"You overestimate your importance and underestimate my efficiency," came a voice behind him, Tabigake grabbed his gun, turned, and fired at the white haired man standing behind him. However the gun seemed to jam and the bullet didn't fire. The man shook his head, "even if you were important enough to necessitate killing you, if I wanted you dead I could do it any time without such theatrics. As much as you might want a scapegoat for your resentment I am not to blame."

"Aleister... what the hell are you doing here, away from that gilded tower of yours..."

"This is the first time since the incident since she has been hurt. I want to ensure that she is still safe and I am the only person I can trust to do so," He responded truthfully. If something went wrong only a few people had enough power to deal with it, Aiwass was off playing with Accelerator and his own little girl and Aleister didn't really trust him anyway. Heaven Canceler was busy with surgery at the moment. Lammington and Vyers had left for a little while, and the only other person was currently busy as well, leaving just himself. Since it was within the city he wasn't risking anything by sending this form down to ensure the child was all right.

"Bullshit," Tabigake accused, "since when did you care about anybody at all. And I know this happened because of you, even if you didn't do it yourself. Didn't I tell you not to get my family involved dammit?"

"I believe your words were... do you know what it means to make an enemy of a mere father? I would suggest you heed your own advice... you are not the only one with a child at stake here... you are, however, the only one of us who isn't doing anything about it."

Tabigake looked at Aleister quizzically, his utter surprise overwriting the anger at the accusation the other man had levelled at him, "you have a kid?"

"Several, much as I have people who I do care about, one of whom you are standing in the way of me reaching, a position which I suggest you leave immediately."

"Not until I get some answers..."

Suddenly Aleister disappeared and his voice began speaking from behind Tabigake. "you will have your answers soon, but I dislike having to repeat myself and she needed to leave to protect your daughter before I could explain it to her."

Tabigake spun around to see as the man picked up Mikoto and the auburn haired girl who she still clutched in her arms. He was about to rage at him when he continued, "I shall return this pair to their rooms and when she is rested I will tell you both the situation."

Tabigake growled as the man disappeared. Then he sighed, "Just when I think I'm out they pull me back in..."

* * *

Author's Note: In this chapter Kuroko does something which she'll do many more times throughout this story... abuse her power and position in order to get what she wants. She does this because she's not a perfectly virtuous person... because perfectly virtuous people don't exist. Before she didn't because she separated the black knight from herself in her mind and therefore didn't utilize any of the powers she had because she didn't think that they existed. Now she's perfectly willing to use it to her advantage. She shouldn't, but she does, because you would... power corrupts. It's good that she's as simple-minded and unambitious as she is, she doesn't really abuse it to any significant degree.

She's still the good guy because she does way more good than bad but the fact is that she does do some bad and I acknowledge that, she does abuse her power, and she does go a bit yandere at times (in the future... look forward to it), and she does hurt people... but she saves so many more people than she hurts and never hurts people for no reason that it's forgiveable when she does a bit of bad.

Anyway, here's the continuation to the meeting I set up in chapter two. There will be more of these parents and also the introduction of the families of Saten and Uiharu coming up in a few chapters, as well as the reintroduction of one of my favorite characters, so look forward to it.


	5. Toaru Aku no Hikui

とある悪の低い

Toaru Aku no Hikui

A Certain Lesser of the Evils

* * *

November 23rd, 11:10AM (November 24th, 1:10AM in Japan)

Isle of Light, Middle of the Caribbean Sea

A large group numbering 17 people were arranged throughout the opulent study in the massive mansion in the middle of a fairly sizable private island in the middle of the Caribbean sea. Four couches, each capable of holding 4 people only 1 of which was fully occupied, were arranged in a semicircle facing a large table and , at the head of said table, an exquisite and extremely expensive armchair. The armchair was occupied by a dark skinned man, his jet black hair tied into dreadlocks which reached the back of his neck, in a suit which cost more than most people's houses. He wore sunglasses and a bored expression on his face as he swirled around the wine in the cup he held in his left hand and looked at his guest.

Despite the bored expression he actually sounded a little interested as he greeted the woman, "Welcome back Othinus," his voice was deep and booming with a thick Carribean accent that held traces of many islands on top of his home one of Haiti, "Can I get you anything? A snack? Wine? Perhaps some clothes," He grinned as he looked the scantily clad woman up and down in a more mocking way than a lustful or perverted one.

"You can get me some results Star," she snapped testily as she covered her body with her cape, all of a sudden feeling very exposed as she felt the man's gaze, along with the gazes several of his colleagues, on her admittedly not very well covered body, "I spent a week in a bidding war against China for your services. I expected to see this matter resolved in a far more timely manner."

"We shall kill the Black Knight for you, as requested, but it isn't a matter to be done instantaneously. First we must deal with several of the people around the Knight who may interfere with any efforts on our part," The Star reasoned, "we also need more information to be able to deal with it effectively. The agents we sent today were reconnaissance agents for this very purpose and they recovered invaluable information."

"What information would that be?" Othinus demanded.

"That we'll need more money if you want us to do this. The risk is far greater than we had, at first, assumed. I'll need another half billion up front or I don't think it is worth the risk help you."

"What?! Our deal was for 1 billion even!" Othinus reminded him. It was already an extortionate rate

"I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further," The Star quoted and then chuckled, "Fine... We'll do it for a quarter billion. Sound good?"

Othinus's nostrils flared in anger then she took a deep breath as her shoulders slumped. "Very well," she said resigned as she held her hand up towards the table. Instantly a large amount of gold appeared on it's surface, "there. A quarter billion."

The star sighed and shook his head as he placed his glass of wine down on the small table beside him. "We are soldiers of fortune, not criminals miss Othinus. You know our policy. We take clean money only, not gold teleported here from the National Reserve Bank. Put it back and wire us the money like last time."

Othinus grumbled but did so. Had it been anyone else she would never have suffered such impudence. But this man was one of six people who could match her power, any fight against him alone would be a fifty fifty shot... with all of his colleagues she would have almost no chance... not until she completed Gungnir at least. But for that she needed Frauline, and she was in Academy City, meaning the Black Knight would be guarding her. Othinus needed her gone before doing anything, which meant she needed The Star to get rid of that armored nuisance.

So she dug into the only legitimate money she had, the 3 billion dollar fortune her father, an energy tycoon who owned almost every geothermal plant in Europe, had left her in his will, and paid The Star before leaving the house.

* * *

Once she was gone The Star smiled and laughed, joined in shortly by a few of the other people in the room. "That One-IQ Othinus is always good for a bit of explotation."

"One and a quarter billion isn't much compared to the ten billion China's paying us to kill the Knight though... and the five billion India's paying us to kill her. And the two billion from all those other people to do the same. Plus the fourty billion we're getting for all the others on our target list from China," Wheel of Fortune grinned.

"And don't forget the one-hundred billion total from those 23 different sources that are paying for us to kill that Imagine Breaker guy," The Fool added, "you are one wicked businessman The Star sir, getting paid twenty three different times by twenty three different people for one single job."

"And with your 50% up front policy we could not lift a finger and still be set for life," said Temperance.

"That's true," The Star admitted, "does anyone wish to do that in fact? Just walk away now. I'll give you a quarter of what you would have earned if you stuck around. Still enough to set you for life though."

"No way," chuckled The Devil in his Georgia drawl. His pale skin was tinged as red as his namesake by the hot Caribbean sun reflecting the sadistic soul within. His black hair was frizzy from the humidity and clinging to the nape of his neck from the sweat, "I'm in this to hurt people, not for money like the rest of you pansies."

"And that is why you're over there in the freak corner," spat out The Empress as she glared at The Devil. She then considered her words for a second and said, "no offense Death." The Empress was a small Chinese woman with a slim figure who looked quite young and was quite young, being barely 19. Fitting for her age she was quite childish, a trait which she demonstrated as she turned 90 degrees and laid down on the couch, despite it being full. This action caused The Tower who shared the couch to tut, but the other two, The Sun and The Lovers were fine with it, the latter, in her ever motherly nature, gently and comfortingly stroked The Empress's almost waist length jade-green hair.

"No offence taken," Death waved off. Death was tall, slim and quite attractive other than the scar that ran down his left eye and his boring military buzz cut hairstyle. The attractiveness was both highlighted and somewhat ruined by his loose and breezy apparel which included an unbuttoned shirt that showcased his musculature but also revealed the countless other scars he had received from his life's numerous struggles. Despite that though he was a cheery person and a bit of a jokester, certainly one of the more fun people to be around amongst this group.

"So you meant offence to the rest of us?" Questioned The Moon with a raised eyebrow. Since said eyebrow was as white as her long plaited hair, the arching caused by the raising of the eyebrow made it appear as if a crescent version of her namesake had attached itself to her face. The Moon was perhaps the most comfortable looking person in the room other than The Sun and The Star. Having grown up in the hot and muggy jungles of Peru she was used to this sort of weather. Being the daughter of a notable cartel boss and former leader of Return of the Winged Ones she was not, however, accustomed to being insulted. Though after such a long period of fake sincerity and fearful respect, she had to admit she found the insults a bit more refreshing and pleasurable than they probably should have to receive.

Had The Empress not been prone she might have shrugged. Instead she sighed and said, "Fine... I guess it's just the freak person rather than the freak corner... happy?"

"Getting back to the topic on hand," interjected The Lovers as she got out a hairbrush from her purse and brushed out some knots in the Chinese girl's hair like the doting mother she was. The Lovers was a stoat woman of clearly Slavic roots, as evidenced by her pale skin, curly blond hair, and blue eyes. However her accent was thickly German as she continued, "I too will be staying around... though if I could have that quarter now as an advance... tuition fees are going up for the kids' boarding schools and it could be useful for paying those."

"I could use the advance too," Death chimed in, "it's my brothers birthday soon and I could use some money for a gift.

"Doesn't your brother hate you?" asked Strength.

A millisecond after the final word left Strength's mouth a shot rang out in the room. Death's arm was pointed straight at Strength and a small barrel poked out from the sleeve. The barrel smoked from the recent combustion within it.

"How many times must I tell you Death," sighed The Star as he held out the bullet that had just been fired in his palm, "There are no guns allowed in the meeting room."

"Evidently you need to tell him a few more times," Strength chuckled as he pushed a braid of his dark brown hair out of his eyes. Strength, despite his designation, was extremely lanky, without a shred of muscle whatsoever. Resembling many of his Indian countrymen who lived in far more abject poverty than he, his dark brown skin was stretched tight over his bones, given him the appearance of a skeleton which has been plastered with wallpaper rather than an actual person. When you added in his effeminate Bollywood face and thick, dorky glasses it was hard to imagine anyone less fit for the title. The only thing about him that hinted of power at a glance was his smile, a smile that told of complete and utter self confidence.

"Is this fighting really necessary? Our list of enemies won't dwindle by bickering amongst ourselves," Justice proclaimed, shaking her shoulder length black hair in irritation. She had a particular dislike of fighting that had been drilled in her by her parents, one of whom was a preacher of the Islamic faith and the other of whom was a judge back home in Babyl- Iraq- the rest of the world called it Iraq these days didn't they...

"Don't worry about it Justice. It's not like we'd be doing anything better anyway," Temperance said, twirling her cane. In appearance she looked considerably like Oneeni, with short brown hair cut longer in front than in back, male formal clothing (albeit formal clothing suitable to the climate rather than The Star's ridiculously uncomfortable-seeming three piece suit), sunglasses, and a cane. Had she been wearing a fedora and had the cane been shaped differently rather than the simple white pole that it was, she might have been a clone of the clone. However her reasons for wearing the accessories were not nearly as fashion oriented as her counterpart. If Oneeni was "Speak No Evil" then Temperance would be "See No Evil" and "Hear No Evil", being completely blind and deaf. She used the cane to navigate, though with this many people around it wasn't necessary to do so.

"We might be dwindling down the list of enemies if only we hadn't sent in those two useless people first," Grunted The Magician from the other corner, angrily scraping her long teal hair, matted by sweat to her back, off of herself. She sat in a chair in a bikini with four fans blowing in her face and was still overheated. She was an Eskimo who had grown up in the Arctic Circle. Her greatest skill was ice fishing and her entire wardrobe for the first 27 years of her life had been clothing thick enough to cushion a fall from 3 stories up (a fact she knew from very unfortunate experience). She was not used to heat at all, let alone heat of this magnitude. The heat made the normally calm and patient girl become far less calm and patient. "Seriously, what were you thinking sending in the normals. Sending them is like sending ants."

"No offense taken," Death remarked for the second time that day. This time the tone was far more sarcastic however. Unfortunately his hidden gun was built for stealth and assassination and did not have any more than a single shot so he could not express how fully the statement had not offended him.

"Besides, it's not like anyone picked them consciously," Wheel of Fortune remarked, bobbing his head every so often, jostling his short, pink-streaked brown hair. His almost crippling ADHD making itself ever evident by the fact that he was currently playing a hand-held video game as he talked. Growing up poor in Thailand he had never had anything like hand-held video games to distract him, but now that he had discovered, and could afford, them they rarely ever left his hand. Skill based games that didn't involve anyone else were truly God's gift to him specially, "We did the usual thing and picked them out of the deck. It was purely by chance that those two went first."

"You don't need to worry about that. As much as I regret it at times I'm hardly a normal and it's my turn next," The Sun assured The Magician, readjusting one of the beaded decorations in his styled hair, which was as red as the sunset with an almost burnt looking black tip. He preferred not to fight at all if he could avoid it, but if he was chosen by the cards to participate in a mission then he would do so to avoid being a leech who relied on others work to make money and to give something back to the group that he considered a family and the only home he had known since his first six years of life in the Indian reservation in Arizona.

"It's my turn after yours," Said The World in her ever casual manner, as she swayed back and forth, her multi-coloured hair dyed blue, green, red, and yellow was swaying like the leaves of the weeping willow tree as she rocked on her heels. Though half-Maori by blood she had grown up in the easy-going culture of New Zealand, causing her to be even more laid back then Death, a privilege afforded to her by her power as much as her upbringing. "Do you want to me to come along and team up with you or something. Maybe do a parallel run like The Chariot and The Hanged Man did."

The Sun considered it for a second. Team ups were rarely done, mostly out of consideration rather than greed, there were many people with many powers and sometimes those powers clashed. The Fool and Justice were exceptions because they were both pacifists and thus needed someone to accompany them and do the dirty work. Parallel runs were far more common with large groups of targets like this one, especially when they had the habit of coming to each other's aid. While The Sun and The World did not have clashing powers, in fact it was arguable that they had some of the best synced powers of the group, there were other reasons The Sun was hesitant to accept the offer, "I'd prefer you not to accompany me... you have a habit of... carelessness that I would prefer not to bring along."

"Hey, I resemble that remark," The World said in a voice thick with fake hurt before chuckling.

"Perhaps it is more careless not to go with another person," said The High Priestess, a dark haired dark skinned fairly elderly woman of Madagascan descent. Her age and years in the field of microbiology had given her both wisdom and caution in spades. She knew that sometimes the deadliest things were those that were least obvious and threatening, "There is a reason that up to now nobody has managed to defeat those people."

"And plenty of powerful people have tried," Reminded the Heirophant in his thick Italian accent as he reached up to tug at his clergymen's collar with a wrinkled, liver-spotted olive hand, something which, when combined with his grey and white hair, showed his status as oldest person in the room. The tone of his voice held more than a hint of disdain as he spoke. It was an uncommon tone, considering his incredible degree of tolerance and compassion, but it always seeped into his voice when he talked about his former colleagues, "My old friends back in the Vatican made plenty of attempts and they consistently failed. That's why they offered a couple billion for his head as well despite the so called truce," he sighed, "two faced, double dealing, corrupt..."

"Are we really the right people to be claiming to be any better?" The Sun interrupted to ask, "I mean we're trying to kill him as well. Are we any better?"

"While I detest claiming moral superiority to anyone I don't mind making the assertion that we are better, if only slightly," Said The Tower in his deep Congolese voice. His skin was dark, even darker than The High Priestess or The Star's and he was by far the tallest male of the group. He was completely bald and his forehead seemed to shine like a mirror. Though only in his early thirties he looked quite aged, though not as much as the resident geezers who had just been talking, and his eyes held a sort of worldliness that most people did not have at any age. "At the very least we are less cowardly than most of them are."

"In any case, most of the people who attempted before were doomed by their own arrogance,"The Sun interrupted, "trying to use magic directly against a person immune to magic. I'm not planning on targeting him at all and if I have the misfortune of meeting him I'm going to suffocate him rather than trying to overwhelm his defences."

"Or use the gun I gave you. You each have one, or 24 in Death's case, for a reason. Still... it is good you have a strategy in place. So if you have everything prepared I shall drop you off tomorrow," said The Star, "As for the rest of you, meeting adjourned."

* * *

The Magician was quickest to leave the room, heading for her bedroom where there were enough air conditioners to make life bearable here. The Sun quickly retired as well in order to begin planning, as did Wheel of Fortune, though that was more because the game systems in his room were better than this hand-held one. Most others had other plans than retiring for the night.

"Hey Strength, you up for a game of darts?" Said Death in a casual voice, as if pretending the bullet firing incident earlier had never even happened, an illusion Strength seemed to play along with.

"Sure thing, how far?" The Strength, in truth, didn't hold any hard feelings. Not only did he know that Death had not attempted it with the goal of killing him (such a thing was so obviously impossible that Death would have to lose 120 IQ points and all common sense before even considering he could do such a thing) but he also knew that, out of everyone here he Death was one of the easier ones to get along with. Perhaps because Death was a Buddhist and thus did not see Strength's Hindu beliefs as strangely as other people did. Perhaps it was just that he was a lot easier to get along with than the others.

"Anything less than 100 meters isn't good for you right, so that works fine," He said as he left to go to the den.

The Empress waited until The Lovers had finished brushing her hair and then stood up, thanking the woman in a semi-rare moment of sincerity, and went off to see what was on TV, hoping there would be an interesting documentary on the History Channel. The Lovers went to the kitchen for a snack while she called her youngest child to check in on him.

The World stood up and stretched, "Hey Tower, you want to play hide-and-go-seek?" she asked with a smile.

The Tower returned the smile. For an old cynic like him who had truly seen too much violence and suffering committed against children and by children it was nice to see someone who had suffered just as much as he had and yet was still this innocent. Having her constantly ask to play with him was annoying at first but he had eventually opened up and was glad that he had done so. "Sure thing."

"You're i-" The World began.

"I'm it," The Tower interrupted rolling his eyes, "I know, I know, I always am..." He followed the little girl out the room to the designated starting position.

The Moon walked over to Temperance and hooked her arm into the other girl's. Though she could handle herself out in the field the fact remained that Temperance was still deaf and blind and had difficulty navigating around the house. When Temperance had joined a couple days after Moon herself had she had immediately volunteered, loving having the opportunity to help someone in need. "Where do you want to go Temperance?" She asked.

As she always did when she was asked that question by The Moon, Temperance lied. "How about the chapel," she said, saying the place The Moon wanted to go instead of where she herself did. It was a special consideration she made towards the person who troubled herself with being her eyes around this place. Though to be fair that was hardly the only reason that Temperance liked the Peruvian girl. The Romani girl had a fondness for people who were more than they appeared to be, people who didn't necessary say what they felt like The Moon. People who put up facades and tried to hide their true thoughts and feelings. For Temperance it was like talking with two people in one, both the mask and the true face.

"Ok, sure thing," The Moon was not so naïve as to believe that Temperance actually wanted to go to the chapel herself. Though she had been raised as an Eastern Orthodox Christian she had cast that aside when she had cast aside everything else that linked to her former Romani lifestyle and become an atheist when she had joined up with them. However, as selfless and helpful as The Moon tried to be at times, she was very bad at refusing something that was offered to her if she wanted it. When she was younger that habit had caused a bit of trouble with her when she tried dieting, but now the consequences were far less harsh.

"Shall I come along? Do you need someone to confess to?" Asked Heirophant, knowing that The Moon was a Catholic as well and having done confessions for her in the past. He had not technically been excommunicated from the church so he still had his priestly abilities and duties to preform. Though in all likelihood he probably would have done them even had he been excommunicated. A priest was an instrument of God and no man, not even the Pope himself, had the right or ability to take God's instruments away from Him.

"Nah, I was just thinking of praying for The Chariot's safety and health," The Moon told him politely.

"You had similar plans for the money as she did didn't you?" The High Priestess interjected, overhearing the conversation. "Personally I have far more sympathy with The Hanged Man's plans. Funding grants to advance research and all that. Pity he put his into Engineering fields rather than Biology."

'Well sorry I think stopping the hundreds of deaths a year caused by the cartels is less valuable than scientific research. I doubt all your precious biology would help much if you had your tongue ripped out your neck' The Moon thought. However she had been taught to be polite to her elders so out loud she only said, "so do you plan to pray for The Hanged Man's safety?"

"Why bother? The part where he would have gotten hurt or killed is over now. They just arrested him, and when this is over The Star will just break him out. No need to pray," she reasoned as she stood up and looked over to Justice, "come on Justice, time for your physical therapy session."

"Yes ma'am," Justice said, even more strictly drilled in politeness to her elders than Moon. She shifted the crutches she had been holding behind her and placed them under her armpit and began hobbling towards the infirmary. The wound had been inflicted on her last mission and it still had not fully recovered yet.

She didn't mind it much. It was not her first nor would it be her last injury of this variety. But Justice was very much of the same opinion as Kuroko insofar as that she believed that no injury as too great if it was sustained for the sake of justice. The difference between them was their sense of what was right and what was wrong. Justice was highly opposed to using violence but when it came to killing she was not nearly as strict as Kuroko, making allowances for warriors and mercenaries that the teleporter refused to make for anyone.

"Always a need to pray, even if it's just for your own peace of mind," The Heirophant said as the pair exited the room. Shortly after they were gone he himself left to take a stroll through the gardens.

The Devil went off to drink. The only rule that the American stuck to regarding how to treat people people was to always be nice and polite to bartenders. Because of that the only person in this entire mansion who didn't hate him, and therefore the only person he could have a good time around, was the bartender, making that place his default hangout, much to his liver's chagrin.

* * *

By now almost everyone had left the room, leaving only The Star and The Fool. The Fool was born and raised in Hong Kong to a Chinese mother and a British father, explaining why he had the skin tone of his Asian brethren with striking green eyes and light, well groomed brown hair. He was shorter than most of the other males in the group but taller than most of the females. He had the build and bearing of the businessman that he was, not scrawny nor fat nor muscular.

Despite being the first card of the Major Arcana, had been the last one recruited, in fact he had been recruited after their group had gone into business. He had been sent by the triad members who supported his company to recruit the new, but already notorious, group of mercenaries. During the meeting to discuss prices The Star discovered The Fool's ability, rather The Fool inadvertently revealed it in surprise when he had learned of The Star's immunity to it. Rather than get angry he had simply smiled and recruited him to fill in the final empty spot.

This also explained how he was the only person in the entire group to share nationality with another person (except for The Sun and The Devil but this was because at the time they had been recruited The Sun was living in Mexico rather than the United States). Since The Star had, in his search for members to join his new organization, spent three weeks visiting every country in the world. When he found someone he liked he attempted to convince them to join (in some cases he was not successful) and moved onto the next country, meaning no two people came from the same one, which is what had led to having such a diverse group of people.

Given how effective and powerful the group of mercenaries were they were kept quite busy, The Fool even more so because his power and natural intelligence meant that he was typically the one who went with The Star to meet new clients and do the business dealings with them, though the dealings were a lot less ruthless and unfair than he had done before for his previous company.

However he was an easily intimidated person who had never really talked with the man who lead the group despite how often he had time alone with him. But now he felt like he had to speak up.

"I don't understand your way of doing things sir... Surely you are not affected by my power, you demonstrated this when we first met, but at times..." He began

The Star smiled at him, surprised to see the man actually speak up. "What do you mean?" he asked, hoping to coax more out of the easily frightened man.

"Well why did you send... no... before that, why do you do," he gestured around, "this. You are powerful, extremely powerful. When each of the two members who... have passed on... died in their missions you immediately went and finished them in a few seconds, something you could have done at any time . You don't need anyone here, you don't even need to do this... why do you?"

"One question at a time please," The Star requested.

The Fool took a breath and considered it for a second, "With your power you could steal as much money as you want so why do you earn it legitimately?"

"It was a promise I made to my mother on her deathbed when I was a young child. My father had already died a few years ago and my mother was very sick. I worked hard to support her and myself, but even working from sun-up to sun-down I didn't have enough money, so I stole things just to get by. My mother knew about this and accepted it because she knew that it was either that or starve, but she made me promise to never steal again if I didn't need to. With the power I have now I don't need to steal, so in accordance with my promise I'm not going to."

The Fool nodded, understanding the importance of a promise, still he did have other issues which he did continue to voice, "With your power you could do all of this alone... so why don't you? Why gather so many people, reducing your payout considerably, when your power alone can suffice."

"First of all because people are willing to pay more for an organisation than a single mercenary, second of all I think it's fun. I like having all these people around. And they're such interesting people too."

"Like The Devil?"

"Yep, like The Devil," The Star nodded, "I travelled the world looking for interesting people. Sometimes it was their powers that interested me, sometimes their motivations, sometimes their outlook on things. The Devil was a combination of the three. He was interesting enough that, even though I didn't sympathize with him at all, I felt like it would be entertaining to have him join this little group."

The Star then grinned at The Fool and continued on, "You want to know what he was before I met him? He was a high ranking member of an American 'organisation' known as the Ku Klux Klan. It is one of those hate groups that is notorious for its discrimination against people of colour. But when he was out of uniform he seemed to treat everyone equally, with either great hostility or joviality depending on his mood and blood alcohol level, completely unrelated to the colour of their skin. When I asked him why he was in it he said he loved hate and conflict and killing and the "Klan", as he called it, was the greatest source of those things in the area. When you add that to his powers I figured that he was the perfect person to be The Devil. He fit the card so well."

"Yes... the card... about that. What is with the theme naming deal? I asked you when I joined but you said you'd save telling me until after I'd been in the group for a while. Is it really that big a secret? Can you trust me yet?"

"It's not really a secret.. it's just a bit of an embarrassing story... You see my father was from a wealthy French family which had owned a massive plantation on Haiti for generations, back when it was first settled. One time a few years back they ran afoul of one of those fake voodoo priestesses who threatened to curse them. They ignored her but the crop that year, by coincidence was terrible, so bad it almost bankrupted them, and they all developed an incredible and very stupid superstition about the magics of the island. Over a few generations they also branched out into other types of superstitions. My father had a special love of tarot cards. His dying gift to me was his favorite deck of special and rare Thoth Tarot cards, he flipped over the top card and it was The Star. He told me about how it signified serenity, tranquillity, and optimism. From that day on I took The Star as a name and when I started this group I figured I might as well make it a pattern. Though I used the classic Rider-Waite deck rather than the Thoth one."

"Why?"

"In the Thoth deck Strength is Lust", The Star said simply, "and I did not want to develop that kind of reputation."

The Fool actually found himself laughing, not an activity he often engaged in, "considering the Strength you chose is an ascetic I don't think that would work out too well... Even your Lovers is more a devoted mother than a philanderess."

"Exactly," The Star sighed, "Temperance is a little bit of a wild one at the moment, still in her rebellious phase after all, but it's likely that she'll calm down soon enough hopefully. The Moon has gotten a bit swept up in it all as well since the pair are so close, but she's still far too catholic to call Lust, and The Moon fits her so well anyway."

"But that's not an embarrassing story, why did you insist I wait to prove myself before you told me," The Fool asked, getting back to the main topic of the conversation rather than this gossip.

"Actually it was more the other way around. I wanted to make sure you wouldn't be offended by it. When I told Temperance of her designation she was quite cross about it. Said it reminded her too much of the Gypsy lifestyle she was so desperately trying to leave behind. She was even more offended, perhaps counter-intuitively, when I told her that I didn't believe any of it. So I decided not to bring it up until I could be sure it wouldn't offend the person."

"I see..." The Fool nodded, "but I'm not sure that explains why you chose it as a pattern... especially if you believe it's fake."

"Because I can. That's the great thing about being powerful... you're allowed a bit of eccentricity. Now do you have any other questions?" The Star prompted.

"Why is there no Hermit if you're so set on making it fit a pattern? I know The Emperor and Judgment died on a couple of missions a while back, I was there for both of them, but as far as I can recall or collect there has never been a Hermit."

"Because that title will forever belong to someone else in my mind, someone who I never got to join my group."

The Fool almost did a double-take as he heard the man's voice... or more specifically something in the man's voice. It was something he heard quite often, more often in his previous world of business and organized crime than in this new group of high-power mercenaries. Still he had never heard it from The Star's mouth. It was admiration... The Star was so much more powerful than the others, than just about anyone, that he didn't really have to admire anyone. He respected geniuses and artists and appreciated their work, but it was a different kind of tone than that one he had just used. "Who would that be?"

"Jean Lammington[1]. I met him about fourty years ago, back when I was sixteen. I had just recently discovered my abilities. I was not nearly as powerful as I am today but I was still extremely strong. Unfortunately I had the nasty habit of picking fights with people, whether in an effort to prove my strength or in an effort to become stronger I don't really know, it doesn't really matter which it was either, they might as well be the same thing. I was travelling around, much like I did when I was looking for people for this group, thou at a far slower rate, and one day I found myself in..."

* * *

April 7th, 8:38PM, 40 years ago

Meuse Region France

The Star sat in a small bar in a small village in a rural-ish part of France. It was around the region where his father had grown up, though he had been born in Haiti like his son, so he had avoided it for six months since he started his journey, but he decided to suck it up and check the place out. It was nearby so he decided that he would leave tomorrow to check it out. Until then he just sat here with his thoughts and a drink.

He swirled the brown liquid around in its glass. Though under age, someone with his ability found that no place could ever truly bar his entrance if he wished to go inside, and once inside people rarely double-checked the age, especially in the far more relaxed period of the seventies, trusting the bouncer to do that tedious job for them.

Suddenly he heard a slurred voice from beside him. "Hey there handsome, you're new around here aintcha? Wanna come back to my place for some fun?"

He turned to see a man on the stool next to him, a tumbler full of some vague liqueur in one hand. The man's vision was too blurry to see the quite subtle clues that the person he was talking to was not of the age of consent and he was probably too drunk to even know what those big words meant in the first place.

The man couldn't have been older than twenty, if indeed he was that old. His smile was full of white, shining teeth and his brown eyes gleamed mischievously. His brown hair was slightly longer than shoulder length and was parted quite severely right above the forehead, causing it to frame his face without getting in his eyes. His suit, of both impeccable quality and repair, suggested that he might be a businessman travelling through the area looking quite indiscriminately for a one night stand, but the accent was local, meaning he was probably from here.

These thoughts vaguely crossed The Star's mind in less than a second as he began to react immediately, fixing a grimace onto his face and glaring at the man. He began to open his mouth to retort (or possibly blast him into oblivion) when the door to the bar opened and The Star sensed a very powerful aura of mana, enough to make him stop talking immediately.

"There you are Vyers," another voice said from the doorway as the man who had just come in walked over.

"Hey Lammington, what brings you round here? You come to get that stick out of your butt and party?" The suited man grinned.

"Actually I came to retrieve you before we have a repeat of that unfortunate Louvre incident..." Lammington corrected.

"I put them back," his friend defended, "and besides I-"

"You," The Star interrupted the inane, drunken chatterings, "You're a magician aren't you? A powerful one at that."

The man called Lammington looked at him briefly then looked to Vyers, "I forget, were there still witch hunters around or have those died out?"

Vyers was always more social and therefore he cared more about, and paid more attention to, the world and current events. Lammington, in comparison, was practically frozen in time so he needed to be reminded of things like this every so often. "Necessarius and Annihilatus are still around but they're English and Russian respectively and not too tolerant of foreigners considering the cold war thing going on. This guy has a pretty darn attractive Haitian accent so I doubt he's a part of them."

"I am a part of no such organisation," The Star said, annoyed at being talked about as if he was not there.

"Sorry for the accusation but I have managed to go 34 years without an attempt to execute me by some witch hunter or another and I wish to maintain this record if possible. But if you were asking for curiosity's sake then I can tell you that you are indeed correct in saying that I am a magician. Now then..." He turned to Vyers again and said, "let's go home then Vyers."

"I wasn't asking for curiosity's sake," The Star said loudly, "I was asking cause I want to fight."

The bar fell silent. To the people of the town Lammington was an incredibly important person, both doctor, sage, and general problem solver. An attempt on his life was not welcome by the people, but at the same time they could hardly do anything for him, knowing just how powerful he was. They knew anything he couldn't handle they sure as heck couldn't. So they tended to just give him room.

Lammington stared at the Haitian man for a second. "My name is Jean Lammington, commonly known in the magic world as The Immortal Hermit. Are you aware of my reputation?"

"Oh so you're some sort of big shot eh? That will make my victory even better."

Only a well timed dry heave stopped Vyers from bursting out into laughter at the prospect. "I should have guessed you were unwaware... people who are aware of it do not ask for fights. But if you do not know who I am then the question becomes why you wish to fight me. If you do not know me then I could not possibly have wronged you, nor could you be chasing any sort of bounty or reward."

"I want to fight because I want to fight, isn't that enough of a reason?" The Star grinned.

"For some, I suppose, it is," Lammington sighed, "Is there any possibility I could refuse or forfeit?"

"Nope..." The Star said and blasted Lammington.

The shot went wide and sped off into the horizon, confusing The Star who remembered firing inside of a building rather than on the outskirts of town. "Huh?"

"If you insist on having a battle, courtesy and respect compel me to accept your offer, but you must have the same courtesy and respect, meaning that battles inside civilian buildings are obviously unacceptable," said the Frenchman as he stood several feet away. His suited buddy was farther still, watching with a look of amusement on his face.

The Star almost roared as he blasted Lammington once more.

He wasn't quite sure what else happened. The fight lasted perhaps half a minute longer but the evens of it were blurry at best. When he finally came to his senses he was in an unfamiliar bed looking at an unfamiliar ceiling as a familiar man treated his injuries.

"Ah you're finally awake?" Lammington said.

"You... beat me?" The Star asked, amazed at the prospect of his defeat, something that up until this point had never happened.

"There is a reason that people who are aware of my reputation rarely attack me," the man said casually, "I have enough magical power and knowledge to destroy the world five times over. The only person who I might even feasibly lose against now that Aleister Crowley is dead [2] is the person who taught me my magic."

"If you're that powerful why isn't everyone aware of your reputation? If nobody can beat you why not make it known? Why aren't you ruling the entire world at this point if you have so much power?"

"Why would I want to do that? I'm happy just staying here and tending to my garden."

"Isn't that a waste of your talents? A waste of your power?"

Lammington smiled. "Let me tell you something you probably won't hear from anywhere else... There is no such thing as a waste of power. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that everything is a waste of power..."

"What do you mean?"

"Say you had a gun and you shot somebody with it. It would be a perfectly reasonable statement to say you wasted that bullet because, even if you killed somebody with the shot, you still can't use it again, even if somebody who you needed that bullet to shoot even more desperately comes along. But if you didn't shoot anybody with it then you also wasted the bullet because the bullet was intended for a purpose that you failed to use it for. With things like magic and such it is even more difficult to claim that you are not wasting it because nobody on this earth knows the intended purpose of magic, if indeed it has one at all. So how can you possibly claim to be using it for its intended purpose, and therefore not wasting it, if indeed there is no obvious purpose."

"I use my magic only as dictated by need, do I need to cast this spell to survive or to help someone else to survive? I could argue that such a code leads to me wasting less magic than most but then people like you say that that is the greatest waste of all and I can find no valid argument to refute that. Everyone has their own ideas of what a waste of power, time, and energy is, but it really is something important to keep in mind."

* * *

November 23rd, 12:23PM (November 24th, 2:23AM in Japan)

Isle of Light, Middle of the Carribean Sea

"Someone actually defeated you?" The Fool asked, just as baffled by the fact as The Star had first been.

"Yes... granted I was weaker then than I am now, but I have a feeling that he would still defeat me fairly easily, which is why I am glad he is no longer in Academy City for this... He gave me a lot to think about back then. I calmed down after that. Spent the next fourty years searching for something that would not be a waste of my powers, but the more I thought about it the more correct I realised he was. It pretty effectively killed any ambition I had."

"I was just about to give up and simply live the rest of my life in relaxation like he did when I met The Tower. The Tower sought a different type of power than I was concerned with. He sought money. At first I thought that it was just greed but, as I'm sure you know if you've talked to him, it goes deeper than that. I thought it was entertaining and so I decided to help him out with his goal. I started this little group and... well... here we are. We've got plenty of successes under our belt with our biggest one coming up. We're the best candidates for achieving victory and as far as I can tell the world will be better off after our victory than anyone else's."

"How do you figure," asked The Fool.

"It's that lack of ambition thing I was talking about. Look at the six other most powerful magicians in the world. Fiamma has already tried to blow up the earth and wipe out all people, Othinus is currently attempting the same but for all existence, Tzu Tao is helping China to conquer the world, back before he became obsessed with revenge Ollerus was obsessed with gaining knowledge and could easily blow up the world by accident, and God Knows what Aleister's plans involve. If any of them win the world's pretty much going to hell. But from what I can tell each of them needs somebody on our list for our plans to succeed, so if we win, and only if we win, the world can pretty much just go on like normal."

"So we're the good guys or something?"

The Star chuckled, "hardly... we kill people for money. We're just... the lesser of the evils."

* * *

[1]: In the title "The Hermit" refers to Aleister rather than Lammington (The Emperor should be far more obvious as the book continues and Judgment should already be extremely obvious, the two members of the mercenary group with those names needed to be out of the picture so you wouldn't think the title was referring to them) but I have already established Lammington's epithet as "The Immortal Hermit" and since he's a part of the backstory of The Star he's the one who The Star though of as The Hermit rather than Aleister.

[2]: While this is after Lammington and Vyers have helped to set up Academy City, and therefore become aware that Aleister is alive, they have still been asked to keep that fact quiet.

* * *

Author's Note: Lots of long paragraphs describing people... But really this is the only time I really have to do it. When they're fighting you won't really get a chance to see their personality or interactions. The only thing I can have there is motive and physical appearance, both of which I didn't really include in this chapter so that I could give a more detailed version when they actually appear without you having to reread a whole bunch of stuff. I did mention a few things for most of them, such as ethnicity and hair, so that you can get a vague idea of what they look like in your mind. Even though they won't last long these people are interesting, or at least I tried to make them interesting, and I want you to understand how the whole thing works before they're all defeated.

* * *

Dedication: Been a while since I've done one of these but I'd like to thank Spikesagitta, ElementalMiko12, ilovereadingandwriting13, FlygonMaster, and Chaosrin who have all reviewed at least 3 of the four chapters before this one and who I hope continue reviewing every chapter along the way. I urge all my readers to follow their example if you have the time.

* * *

Coming Soon: Despite the calmness in her voice it was fairly easy to hear the unspoken guarantee of utter destruction contained within the syllables as the roaring wind whipped the fiery boulders around like mere leaves in a typhoon.


	6. Toaru Kyōki no Kōi

とある狂気の行為

Toaru Kyōki no Kōi

A Certain Act of Madness

* * *

November 23rd, 7:43PM

Tokiwadai Exterior Dormitories

Misaka awakened with a yawn then attempted to rub the sleep from her eyes but found that she was prevented from doing so, or indeed from moving at all, by a familiar presence that was curled into her embrace.

She smiled slightly as she looked down upon the smaller girl's sleeping face and marvelled at how adorable it was. She was happy to not that she had not had a single nightmare since returning as well, as made clear by the lack of thrashing about in her sleep the past couple nights. It was good to see she was finally over them.

When she finally managed to draw her eyes away she glanced up at the clock on her bedside table and noted the time. Then she noted that she was looking at the clock on her bedside table and wondered how that could be. Hadn't they fallen unconscious a kilometer or so away from their dorm? If some stranger had found them then they'd be in the hospital instead, same thing if her parents found the two. Maybe she misremembered it and she had actually managed to drag them back before she succumbed to sleep, or perhaps Kuroko had briefly woken up and teleported them back. It didn't really matter which she supposed and she was still too tired to think. In addition her muscles ached like no tomorrow from her exertions that day. Even though most of it had been her using her power the fact was that her power did tend to wear on her muscles when used in significant amounts.

She gave a groan of discomfort as the thought highlighted the pain. The groan seemed to wake the sleeping teleporter who began to rouse herself from sleep as well. After the usual exchange of good morning kisses and the unusual exchange of queries about how they had gotten home, Kuroko stood up and stretched as Misaka took the opportunity to do the same.

As Kuroko stretched she felt something in her pocket. She reached in and felt around before her fingers found a small note. She took it out and read it. It was from Aleister, telling her to meet him at the windowless building later that night. "Hey Onee-sama," she said, "It looks like I have some work tonight, I have to leave in a couple of hours."

"I see..." Misaka replied, "when will you be back."

"Shortly af- actually... I probably won't be back until about 6A.M." She corrected herself.

"What's going to be taking you so long?"

"Things," Kuroko responded vaguely.

Misaka sighed, "so when are you going to tell me about these things?"

"I'm not saying 'things' because I don't want to tell you the answer, I'm saying 'things' because I don't know the answer. And as for when I'll tell you about everything... I'll tell you guys today, when we all hang out."

"All right," the electro master nodded, accepting that answer. Then she groaned again and laid down, another cramp bringing a fresh wave of pain.

"What's wrong Onee-sama?" the teleporter asked immediately, concerned over her lover's pained look.

"Just muscle pain from the fight, I'll be fine," she explained.

"Would you like me to massage you?" the auburn haired girl asked, concern dropping from her voice to be replaced with as much innocence, albeit fake innocence, as she could muster.

"That would be nice actually," Misaka acknowledged.

Kuroko grinned and turned off the light. The older girl was about to ask what her room mate was doing when several lit, scented candles appeared around the room, their dim light granting a relaxing ambiance that was further enhanced by some light, soothing music that began playing at the same time. Had it been anyone else Misaka might have thought relaxation to be the intent of these additions, but she knew Kuroko far too well, so when she teleported on top of her and began to lower her hands to teleport the older girl's clothes off of her, Misaka held her at bay with an arm held straight and said, "No Kuroko."

"But I just want to make you feel good Onee-sama," Kuroko pouted cutely, almost making the electro master falter, but her resolve was restrengthened when she saw the massage oil in the teleporter's hand and understood exactly what she meant by "make you feel good". "No Kuroko." she said again.

However Kuroko was as stubborn as ever and they continued to argue for the next fifteen seconds before Kuroko got a harsh shock and Misaka got a far more tame massage than the teleporter had originally planned to give. The candles were still scattered and lit and the music was still playing because it was more effort to get rid of them than it was worth and in truth it was quite relaxing, relaxing enough for Misaka to completely lose track of time. And since Kuroko had very little sense of anything but the moment when she was with Misaka, especially when she was in physical contact with Misaka, during which time her thought processes were a repeating loop of 'Onee-sama, Onee-sama, Onee-sama... oh your skin is so smooth and soft and perfect... it's as if I'm touching a goddess, no I am touching a goddess, someone so perfect could not possibly be anything else... Onee-sama, Onee-sama, Onee-sama...' The only person who cared about the time during this massage was Kuro, who was quick to speak up when it was time to go, a fact that Shiro was far from grateful about, especially because Misaka had just fallen asleep and Kuroko had just started to revel in the ever cute sleeping face of her one and only love in addition to her wonderful back which was completely bare for the massage. Kuroko began drooling when she realized the other side would be bare too. Kuro needed to remind her several more times that it was time to go.

Still, she had a job to do and she was going to do it, even if it was a horrible, terrible waste of one of the cutest and most desirable images in the world... She at least decided to take a couple pictures so as not to waste it completely before leaving.

* * *

November 23rd, 9:28PM

The Windowless Building

She arrived shortly after leaving and greeted Misaka's father, who the note had told her would be there as well, and followed the note's instructions to teleport him inside.

Once they entered Kuroko was immediately addressed by Aleister. "Prompt as always, child... I shall take that as a sign of your successful recovery," he said before getting back on track, "now then, to continue my explanation of these new foes. They are a mercenary group called the Arcana, are you aware of them Tabigake-san?"

"Unfortunately... They are renowned for their power, especially their leader. If they are your opponents then I doubt even your ability to survive."

"Aleister-sama is stronger than you think Misaka-sama."

"Indeed, but it would be too great a risk to attempt to confront the leader at the moment without sufficient preparation. Luckily that will be unnecessary for a while still... The leader is only drawn out if either all of the others have failed or one of the others is killed. Since there are 16 others beside those that have been defeated already and they rarely show up more than one or two at a time we have at least a week, possibly more, before it becomes necessary to fight him."

"And how do you propose to fight the other 16," Tabigake asked.

Aleister glanced at Kuroko who nodded, "I shall take care of it to the best of my abilities."

Tabigake looked at Kuroko and shook his head, "are you trying to die?"

Kuroko returned the head-shaking, "not any more Misaka-sama. I am confident in my ability to win."

"I don't think either of you understand how powerful these people are. They killed the previous leader of china in front of half his army. They've beaten some of the most powerful fighting forces in the world with little effort. It's why their services are worth so much, because they will not fail. You might have beat a couple but thinking that that means you're capable of beating all of them is foolish," the man ranted, "and I have no idea what you expect me to do about this, thinking I can help against something like this is even more ridiculous."

"I do not expect you to fight the Arcana, I expect you to do what you have been doing for me for years... dealing with the other issues. In this case I need you to get as much information as you can about any other mercenaries or support that the people who hired these mercenaries might send. I doubt China will entrust a mission this important solely to a group of hired help. None of my other agents have anything close to your extensive branch of contacts hence why I need you for this." there were fewer things that Aleister was not capable of than legs on a centipede, but when it came to gathering information even his powerful magic could not always match the simplicity and efficiency of spies and informants inside the enemy's organisations, hence his need for people like Tabigake in the first place. Now that he had delivered his orders he turned again to Kuroko, "Child... Avon and number five are currently interrogating the people captured today. Tomorrow you should go and gather the information they have procured. There is no need to rush though, if the next mercenary enters the city before you have had a chance to gather that information there are other people who can delay or even defeat the mercenaries beside yourself... it is better to be more prepared for the fights in order to ensure your survival than less prepared and prompt."

"I know Aleister-sama... I shall be careful. Though I figure most people are vulnerable to having an axe teleported into their head."

"It would not be good to win too easily child... lest you lure out The Star earlier than necessary."

"Understood Aleister-sama... so I should play around with them beforehand?"

"Not the word I would have chosen, but effectively yes."  
Kuroko nodded, "As long as nobody's in danger I don't mind doing that... but if someone's about to get hurt I will do whatever is necessary to protect them, even if it means defeating them in an instant."

"At least you have your priorities straight," mumbled Tabigake, "very well... but once this is done I'm done with this all forever, no exceptions."

"Once this is done I very much doubt I will have use of your abilities. You will be able to have a happy peaceful life," Aleister said, "now you two are dismissed. You need not leave the city but it would be best if you started immediately Tabigake-san."

The man sighed, "yeah... I'll start making calls tonight, but I am going to see my daughter's festival no matter what."

The pair left the building after that. Kuroko offered to give Tabigake a "lift" back using her power but he said he needed a bit of time to think.

"Are you sure you'll be okay on the way back?" She asked to make sure.

"I'll be fine, I have my usual precautions," he said, pulling back his jacket to reveal the tell-tale signs of a bulletproof-vest under his shirt and a machine pistol in a holster on his hip, along with what looked to be a taser.

Kuroko frowned, "as a member of Judgement I really must protest to you carrying around lethal weapons."

"It's modified to fire rubber bullets... non-lethal," Tabigake explained, "This city is mostly kids and I'm not in the habit of killing anyone if I don't have to but especially kids..."

Kuroko nodded but was slightly put off by the "if I don't have to" part. 'If this isn't all a hallucination then Onee-sama's father is not the most... innocent of people,' she thought as she watched him walk off before disappearing herself.

* * *

_So why did you say you'd be out so late? Aleister never takes that long to explain things. Do you have something else to do?_

"No... it was more like a consideration to you," She said as she appeared in front of her house, "You have something to do don't you?"

"_Yes I do," _Kuro said, taking over and walking into the house with a monotone_ "tadaima," _that only someone with the keenest ear could have distinguished as happy.

Oneeni had a keen enough ear to be able to hear both the door opening and the voice that accompanied it despite asleep in her room. Kuro was about to go to find her when she came rushing towards the entryway on her own. In the clone's excitement and the sudden and blinding transition from the dim light of the hallway to the entryway's bright light, she accidentally tripped over a step. Kuro moved to catch the girl like the dashing knight that she was, but that plan was ruined by the fact that, despite tripping clumsily just then she had the reflexes and balance of a moderately skilled gymnast and easily caught herself without Kuro's aid. The mild disappointment that the stoic personality felt was quickly picked up on by Shiro who proceeded to tease Kuro by saying, You're more of a romantic than I thought to want to do such a clichéd thing as that...

Kuro was about to retort but when Oneeni embraced her the words died in her throat and she simply returned the hug and decided that she'd let it go and just enjoy herself for tonight. Shiro had given her until 6 in the morning after all.

And enjoying herself was easy enough with Oneeni hugging her in nothing but the dress-shirt of her tuxedo, her underwear, and, for some reason, her hat, which she had put on to greet Kuro despite having taken it off to go to sleep.

Though not quite as obsessed as Shiro was, the fact that they shared a body meant that some of the lust that was stirred up every time Kuroko was in close proximity to Misaka, especially when the electro master was in a state of undress, leaked into Kuro, infecting her with the same nearly uncontrollable desire for intimate physical contact.

Unlike Shiro, for whom this desire and lust was next to impossible to control with her borderline personality disorder, Kuro could reign it in if she so wanted to. Luckily she didn't have to reign it in for Oneeni and proceeded to kiss the clone passionately while her hands stroked the clone's thighs.

However after a few minutes of this Oneeni pushed her away. She looked at the bigger girl with a hint of confusion, wondering if she hadn't liked it or something. Oneeni blushed as she looked at Kuro and began to sign, "I'm all sweaty and dirty from my fight today... I was tired when I came home so I didn't get a chance for a bath... Can we wait until after I have one?"

_'Should've known it was something like that,'_ Kuro thought, a bit relieved that it was something that simple. _"We'll take one together, and while we do you can tell me about this fight you had..."_

Oneeni nodded and the pair went to the house's large bathroom. They began to undress and, after washing themselves, settled in in the large tub. As opposed to their usual arrangement of Kuroko sitting between the clone's legs facing the same way, this time Kuro went to the opposite edge and faced Oneeni in order to see her hands clearly as she told her story.

Oneeni told the story of her fight with chariot but didn't tell Kuro-sama any more. This secrecy was not out of mistrust or a want to keep it private, but she knew that anything regarding the clones or The Butcher were confidential, even to Kuro-sama, in fact her mentor had told her that they were confidential **especially** to Kuro-sama. In the long run it was a good thing that she kept it from Kuro, who would have been inclined to do something very unpleasant to Accelerator in response to him attempting to hurt Oneeni.

Once the story was over Kuro sighed and slid back into their usual configuration. _"Well you can handle yourself just fine so I hardly need to tell you to be careful, nor do I need to baby you by warning you not to get into any fights. I trust you to fight carefully and to win any fights you get into. That said... if a fight ever gets to be too much you just need to call and I'll be over in a second to tear your opponent apart limb from limb for daring to hurt you."_

Oneeni nodded and signed something. Kuro watched but the reversed perspective made it harder to translate. After a few seconds she got the message though and nodded as well, _"of course, in return I'll call you if I ever cannot handle a fight... Oh speaking of that it seems like we'll have quite a few fights on our hand."_

Kuro repeated what she had been told by Aleister.

"_So it seems like we'll ha- ahhh the eyes, you always get it in my eyes,"_ Kuro whined as she rubbed the foamy shampoo from her eyes, a few tears trailing down her cheeks.

Oneeni frowned and looked at the shampoo bottle she was holding. It was a baby's shampoo that said "No Tears". It was the one she used on Last Order who didn't seem affected by it at all... why was Kuro-sama so sensitive?

She put the shampoo bottle aside and turned the smaller girl until she was facing her. She took in the oh-so-rare sight of Kuro's tears with a quick thought of 'adorable...' before kissing her eyes and gently wiping away the foam with her thumb. 'Only Kuro-sama could ignore having her eyes cut by a sword and yet cry when she gets shampoo in her eye,' she grinned to herself, then looked at the left eye. It was shut, just like it had been for the past week while she had been recovering. Just before Kuro-sama had left the hospital she had asked Oneeni to arrange her hair to make it cover the eye in an appealing manner, but she still didn't know why. The eye was still obviously there, she could see the shape of it beneath the eyelid. Kuro-sama had such pretty pink eyes, why she would want to waste it was beyond Oneeni's comprehension.

The eye seemed to cause her almost constant pain in the hospital but it had stopped now, in fact it seemed that it didn't feel anything. There were no tears streaming from it in response to the shampoo like with the right eye.

Some blind fumbling on Kuro's part quickly distracted Oneeni from that line of inquiry. The clone smiled and decided to do a bit of "fumbling" of her own while Kuro couldn't see.

Luckily for Shiro Oneeni remembered how tired she was before anything too... intimate happened between them and Oneeni decided to finish fixing Kuro-sama's appearance in the morning.

The clone finally finished wiping the soap from Kuro's eyes and then picked her up out of the bath and towelled her off, briefly reminded again of how she had bathed Last Order all those weeks ago.

Kuro grumbled under her breath, frustrated at Oneeni for stopping the "fumbling" so soon after she had begun it and equally frustrated at herself for allowing Oneeni to get as far as she did. Oneeni was far too much like the pereskia in some respects, the alternate personality realized.

Once the pair were dried Oneeni picked up Kuro once again, to only a few half-hearted protests, and carried her to the bed where the two cuddled up and slept for several hours, though the rest they had already gotten meant they only slept until around three, giving Oneeni plenty of time to freshen up Kuroko's appearance before she had to go back to the dorms and Shiro's waiting love.

* * *

November 24th, 5:48 AM

Tokiwadai Exterior Dormitories

Kuroko appeared in her room of the dorms to be greeted by a very odd combination of sight and smell.

Her Onee-sama was in the kitchen making something which looked a little like fried eggs, and yet there was not the pungent aroma of something burning like such a sight would normally be accompanied by. Instead the smell was... good... as if someone competent was cooking.

"Onee-sama?" the teleporter asked, confused.

"Ahh, welcome back Kuroko. Hope you're hungry, breakfast is almost ready."

"Onee-sama's breakfast?" Kuroko asked, perking up as she realized the situation, "a breakfast handmade with love by Onee-sama?" If Misaka made it then Kuroko would choke down even the most inedible of morsels simply to be able to eat something her Onee-sama had made for her. It was practically a dream come true... especially if the food was actually half-way decent.

"Must you make everything into a big deal," Misaka blushed when Kuroko mentioned the "made with love" thing, "it's not like I did it for you or anything... I just got up early and felt like making breakfast. Hey!"

The electro master's last exclamation was in response to Kuroko teleporting behind her and hugging her tight. "But you made enough for me too so you were at least taking me into account right Onee-sama? Such a thoughtful girlfriend I have." Kuroko brushed her lips over the nape of the older girl's neck, eliciting a spark that the teleporter knew had nothing to do with anger.

Unfortunately it was followed by a shock that was a little more than a mere spark that did have to do with anger, or at least embarrassment. It was not enough to burn her, but it was enough to make her recoil from the very brief pain.

"I-it's not like that," Misaka blushed deeper, keeping herself turned away to prevent Kuroko from seeing it, "I mean... yeah I thought of you... what kind of friend... what kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't... but... just don't get used to it or anything..."

"It smells good..." Kuroko said with a smile, changing the topic.

"It's just eggs... I remember how to cook them from the last time you showed me..." Misaka explained as she put them on a plate.

"You've always been such a fast learner, though it's not surprising for someone as smart and talented as you to be able to pick up a skill quickly."

"And you never learn," Misaka said, turning around again and ruffling Kuroko's hair with a grin, "and yet you're still better than me at all this stuff..."

"Just because you're going to be wearing the dress at the wedding doesn't mean I don't want to be a good wife to you."

"See what I mean by never learning," Misaka said after bonking the smaller girl on the head. Then she handed the girl her plate of eggs and took her own to the table, "I worked hard so you better eat those."

"With pleasure," Kuroko answered happily.

As the pair ate Kuroko remembered something, "what's your class doing for Ichinasei this year?"

Misaka sighed, "ballroom dancing lessons. I'll be playing the violin."

Kuroko's eyes twinkled as a great big grin overtook her face. The grin was enough to earn a mild zap from Misaka as warning not to say anything. "What about you?"

"Don't know, I haven't been at school for almost two months now."

"Oh... right..." Misaka suddenly felt another wave of guilt.

"I'm a little relieved though, it means I'll have more free time to spend watching you play the violin. Are you going to be wearing the same dress as you did during the open house? It was so beautiful on you, not that anything isn't beautiful on you."

"Ho-how do you say all that with a straight face?" Misaka demanded, looking away and blushing but still feeling too guilty to zap Kuroko again.

"Because I mean it. You can even make those childish pajama's look great," Kuroko replied, "yo-"

"It's rude to talk with your mouth full," Misaka huffed, a vein popping up in her forehead as she shoved a spoonful of egg into the teleporter's mouth to stop the string of embarrassing compliments and equally embarrassing criticisms.

Kuroko smiled at her girlfriend's ever cute embarrassment but decided to give it a rest, else she be reduced to a piece of charcoal before her first day back at school.

* * *

November 24th, 8:30 AM

Tokiwadai Middle School

When the time came the pair headed off to school, teleporting to give them more time together before they had to leave and arriving there quickly. They split, reluctantly on Kuroko's part, and went to their respective classrooms. Kuroko took her seat for the first time in almost 2 months and sighed.

"Kuroko? You're back. Where have you been?" Asked a familiar voice. Kuroko looked up to see Kongou Mitsuko walking up to her flanked by Maaya and Kinuho like usual, a concerned look on their faces.

"Oh I've been places, done things... it's not too exciting or anything. What have I missed?"

"Pretty much all of the festival preparation. We're doing a play," Maaya explained.

"I am of course the director. It seems people are finally realizing my natural organisational skills and leadership abilities," Kongou proclaimed haughtily.

"We finished up all the props and things last class period so today we were going to move them all to the auditorium and do one last rehearsal today," Kinuho began.

"About that," another student spoke up. It was a girl with shoulder length teal hair that matched her sea blue eyes. "It seems Ichigo-chan and Hanako-chan are still sick."

"Are you serious Hayami-san?" Asked another classmate, this one with curly black hair.

"Mhmm, I went to check on them since my dorm's next door to theirs but they were still bedridden with a high fever," Hayami explained with her usual grand gestures and perhaps misplaced enthusiasm.

"Dammit, so we got the useless one back but the people who matter are still gone? Fukou da."

"Sorry I'm a useless person who doesn't matter," Kuroko huffed.

"Don't worry, It's not your fault you're useless," Maaya comforted Kuroko, though only realizing what she had said when Kuroko's head collided with her desk loudly. "Umm.. I mean... anyway... what should we do?"

"It's cause the star and understudy are room mates.. when one got sick the other caught her cold. We should've taken precautions," said Kongou, frowning as the play she had worked so hard to put on was becoming less and less likely to happen.

"You couldn't have foreseen this Kongou-san, don't beat yourself up," Kinuho comforted more successfully than her friend.

"You're right Kinuho-san, for today let's just do what we can, we'll move the props to the auditorium," Kongou declared.

"We really should have just built them in the auditorium to begin with... Getting those big set pieces through the door is a lot of work."

"It couldn't be helped, we had to share the auditorium with other classes, it would've been even more work if one of the members of the band or someone accidentally destroyed one of them."

"Teleporter," Kuroko reminded them, "If you don't let me do what I can do I really will be useless."

"Oh, right, you've been gone so long we kind of forgot... Ok then you get on that while I figure out what to do about this issue," Kongou said, ordering Kuroko around as if she were the Shogun of Japan and the teleporter was a mere peasant. Kuroko frowned at this but she figured she might as well do something to help. So she went around to each of the prop and teleported them one by one to the auditorium, which was luckily less than 100 meters away so she didn't even need to leave the classroom.

"So what are we going to do about the play? What if they're still sick tomorrow?" Maaya asked.

"We can only hope that they aren't," Kongou sighed, "if they are I guess we'll just need to find a stand-in."

"Who could possibly stand in at this time? They'd need to learn all their lines in a single day." The curly haired girl said pessimistically.

"And what about the rehearsal today?" Asked Hayami, who still hadn't been hit by the disappointment that was affecting everyone else.

"I'll sub in for now, I'm pretty sure I can read the script well enough," Kongou said, completely confident in her own abilities, "go on and give me a prompt."

"But to my mind", Hayami randomly said one of her lines, "the knights who did all that were pushed into it and had their reasons for their antics and their penances, but what reason have you got for going mad?"

'Ese es todo el punto y ahí radica la belleza de mi empresa. Un caballero errante volviendo loco por una buena razón - no hay ni placer ni mérito en eso. La cosa es llegar a ser una locura sin una causa y tener mi señora piensa: si yo hago todo esto cuando está seco, lo que no haría yo cuando está mojado?" Kuroko rattled off, only half listening as she teleported the last couple props to the auditorium.

Kongou was jarred by the sudden interruption and turned to Kuroko in a huff, "don't interrupt me with that... that... what was that anyway? What language were you just speaking?"

"Huh?" Kuroko asked, only just now giving the conversation her full attention, "Oh... it was Old Castilian. I learned it a few years ago in order to read one of my favorite books in it's original langu- wait... what play are we doing anyway?"

"I doubt you would ever have heard of it," the curly haired girl sniffed, "It's a little too classy for someone like you."

"It's a seventeenth century classic called Don Quixote," Maaya informed Kuroko, "It's a bit obscure but it's a lot less clichéd than Romeo and Juliet or something like that, and there aren't any kissing scenes in Don Quixote so the class picked that instead."

"Hmm... Interesting. I wasn't planning on watching the play but if it's Don Quixote I might just stick around after all."

"Well it won't happen at all if you don't be quiet so I can try and learn the lines," Kongou snarked and turned back to Hayami, "go again please."

"But to my mind", Hayami repeated the same line as before, "the knights who did all that were pushed into it and had their reasons for their antics and their penances, but what reason have you got for going mad?"

"That is the... That is..." Kongou began, trying to remember what the next line was.

"That is the whole point" Kuroko said the line, this time in Japanese, "and therein lies the beauty of my enterprise. A Knight Errant going mad for a good reason - there is neither pleasure nor merit in that. The thing is to become insane without a cause and have my lady think: If I do all this when dry, what would I not do when wet?"

All the girls turned and looked at the teleporter as she sat there with a smug little smile. "Yes you were absolutely right," Kuroko droned sarcastically as she looked at the curly haired girl, "I've never heard of it before... it's far too classy for someone like me... I'm just a useless person who doesn't matter at all..."

"Do you know the entire play by heart?" Kinuho asked, surprised.

"No... I know the entire book by heart in three different languages, but unless it's a direct transcription then I don't know the play," Kuroko informed them, "Though I could probably learn it quickly enough." 'especially with Testament...' she added in her head.

"Could you learn it by tomorrow?" Kongou asked, her eyes gleaming with hope that her play might just yet be saved.

"I'll try. I'll join in on the rehearsal and learn it as I go along. You have a spare script for me?"

"Sure we have plenty of scripts," Kongou said excited.

"But there's the matter of the costume," Maaya, the costume designer for the play, said, "Ichigo-san was..." there was a pause as Maaya glanced at Kuroko's chest and then slightly over her head, "bigger... And I don't think I can make it smaller in just one night. Unless you happen to have a suit of armor in your size stashed away under your clothes there's still that problem."

Kuroko opened her mouth then closed it when she realized that, even if she could find some way to explain that she did indeed have exactly that, her brilliant and intimidating suit of armor was hardly appropriate for Don Quixote, whose armor was cheaply made and rusted.

Luckily Kinuho, the writer of the play who thus had more experience with the source material than the others (other than Kuroko), had the solution. "You don't need to modify it. Ichigo-san can't be more than 7 centimeters taller than Shirai-san, so the suit of armor isn't unwearable for her. Don Quixote was a lanky man whose armor was too big for him as well, so in fact it's slightly more realistic if it's a bit too big."

Maaya nodded, "hmm, that's true. Plus it does have straps and stuff so we can adjust it a bit..."

"But that still leaves the issue of Rocinante... can you ride a horse Shirai-san?" The curly haired girl asked.

"No. The occasion has never arisen where I have needed to learn," Kuroko said, "why is there a horse in a play anyway?"

The girl sighed, "It was to make it more authentic. Ichigo-san was a great horse rider so we figured we might as well have a real horse. Well I suppose you don't need to be as good as she was. We asked Kemonoko-san from class 2-1 to use her ability to control animals in order to keep the horse nice and tame throughout the whole thing. Can you sit on a horse without falling off at least?"

"I think I can handle that much," Kuroko confirmed with a slight frown at the condescending tone that the other girl spoke with.

"Excellent, then I'll inform everyone of the change of staff," Kongou told them before doing just that.

* * *

Misaka sighed as she was finally dismissed from her class. Kuroko had texted her saying that she might be staying a little later than she had first thought and had told Misaka to go ahead and meet up with Uiharu and Saten. But when she looked at the time on her phone she saw that it was far too early to be doing that, so she decided to check in on Kuroko and see what her class was doing and what was holding her up.

She had gone to her classroom but only the teacher was there. The teacher told her that the rest of the class were in the auditorium. Misaka thanked her and began heading there instead. Unfortunately the auditorium was another building altogether, but luckily that building was very close to Kuroko's classroom. So Misaka began walking along the covered walkway to the auditorium.

However, along the way Misaka ran into someone that she would really rather not have to interact with. "Oh, Misaka-san, you're back in school are you? Here I thought that you'd learned your place and dropped out of school to pursue endeavours more suited to someone like you," A girl with golden hair and star-studded eyes grinned. She was accompanied by three sneering lackeys who she was standing behind like a shield.

"Yeah, like a janitor, that might suit someone of your status," one of the lackeys jeered.

"No way, her temperament screams delinquent, not janitor," another joined in.

"I heard you blocked up the door to your room? I wonder what could possibly cause a temper tantrum of that magnitude," the Queen continued, completely ignoring her lackeys.

"Perhaps she realized just how much better you are than her," the third lackey said.

"Or maybe it was boy trouble. Did the great rail gun have her heart broken? Hmmm?" The second lackey said.

Whereas before she could just ignore the words of the four idiots that last one struck a cord and made a vein pop out of her forehead. She clenched her fists and was about to speak up.

Suddenly a noise of surprise from one of the girls drew the attention of the rest just in time to see as a school bag went flying out to the side, beyond the cover of the roofed walkway and over the grass where the suitcase like bag was engulfed in a column of red light that lasted only a moment but easily reduced the bag, and a small crater of earth beneath it, into ash.

"Insult Onee-sama again and you'll become a smoking crater as well," Kuroko said from behind the girl she had snatched the school bag from. Her face was plastered with a humourless, merciless smile that told the three girls that she was not kidding.

The three lackeys dove behind The Queen so fast one might think that they were teleporters themselves. Misaka's eyes widened at the terrible threat that had come out of Kuroko's mouth. The only one who didn't look scared was Misaki, and that was only because she had long ago learned how to control the fear that showed on her face.

"W-W-We aren't scared of you..." One of the lackeys said, though her voice and stutter easily betrayed the fear that she so obviously felt.

"Ye-yeah, The Queen can handle you, can't you Shokuhou-sama?" The third one said. Teasing and taunting Misaka was one thing, she didn't hurt you no matter how far you pushed her, but Kuroko was a different matter.

The teleporter sighed and said in a commanding voice, "Dismiss them Misaki, we have business to discuss."

It took a second for those present to realize what Kuroko had just said and the tone she had just said it in. She had just talked down to The Queen.

"How dare you," the second lackey shouted, "how dare you speak that way to the Queen."

Shokuhou just stood there, confused as to what she was supposed to do. If it were just Kuroko and the lackeys then she would just wipe their memories and do as Kuroko said, but right now Misaka was here as well, something that threw that plan out of the window.

Kuroko, however, did not appreciate such hesitation and said in the same tone as before, "that's an order Misaki."

The Queen frowned but obeyed immediately, wiping the memories of the girls and sending them off. "What business do we have to discuss here in front of her, you know I can't just wipe her memories like everyone else. What about your cover? What about mine?"

"Kuroko what's going on here," Misaka asked the teleporter, utterly lost as to what was happening.

"She's declassified now, no need to keep up a cover," Kuroko said to the Queen as she held her hand out, "now about the people you interrogated yesterday, do you have the files?"

"Declassified?" Shokuhou repeated, "oh... yeah, I have the files. I managed to figure out the powers of the person's whose next up. Here," the blond rooted around in her bag and handed the files to Kuroko, who began to read them over.

"What is going on here," Misaka repeated, this time more sternly.

"Misaki is an agent of Aleister much like myself. Her power is... incredibly useful..." Kuroko explained as she read, and a grin slowly spread across her face, "Onee-sama... I need to go for a bit. Can you go ahead and explain to Uiharu and Saten that I'll join you guys later?"

"Where are you going?" Misaka asked, getting even more confused.

"Voy a La Mancha en España para conseguir la ayuda de Roque en la lucha contra el sol," Kuroko said excitedly before she disappeared. Leaving a very confused Misaka alone with The Queen.

Misaka became even more confused when the blonde sighed and said, "Sorry for everything."

"Huh?" Misaka's eyes widened as she heard those words from the mouth she thought utterly incapable of speaking them.

"If you're declassified then I can finally stop this farce, I don't have to be a bitch to you to keep my cover up anymore, so I figure I might as well say sorry now that I have the chance," The Queen explained calmly, politely, and completely genuine, with none of her usual mischievousness.

"It was... a cover?"

"Well not at first, but after a while it became necessary. It's nothing personal, I just needed to keep up that image to throw off any suspicion. In any case I've apologized, so goodbye." She said with even more dignity than usual despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that her haughty, arrogant aura had faded away.

Misaka watched her go as she tried to make sense of what had just happened.

"Why do I have a feeling this day is going to get even weirder?" she said out loud with a sigh.

* * *

Author's Note: I was originally going to have this chapter and the next chapter be together but I was nearing my 8-day deadline and I realized that this was fine on its own, especially since, if I paired it with the next chapter, the length of the chapter would be ridiculous.

Anyway I'm going to do a bit of a rant about Oneeni this time. Oneeni is an interesting character because she is a very strong female character but she isn't independent like the standard "Strong, independent female character" because she always has and always will take orders from others, because that's how she's been trained. Furthermore she is vain and appearance obsessed and loves shopping and clothes. At first glance she might seem like quite a poor female role model, but in my opinion she's actually a very good one because of one reason: she never lets who she is or how she feels get in the way when it really matters. If she breaks a nail she'll whine about it for a couple seconds, but if she breaks a nail in the middle of a fight she'll wait until after she's beaten everyone up to whine, if she bothers to do it at all. She has several very feminine traits, which a lot of "strong, independent female character" don't have, yet her feminine traits are neither exaggerated to dominate her personality nor are they such a small part of her personality that they are mentioned and then forgotten.

* * *

Dedications (cause this time I'm going to try and do it every chapter in order to properly get across my thanks): Thank you to Chaosrin, Ilovereadingandwriting13, Guest, Spikesagitta, and lovewrath for leaving reviews for last chapter.

* * *

Coming Soon: The massive beast opened it's gaping maw and struck with the swiftness of a cobra. Misaka had no time to react before the creature swallowed her and the others in a single bite.


	7. Toaru Satori no Honō

とある悟りの炎

Toaru Satori no Honō

A Certain Flame of Enlightenment.

* * *

"Hey Misaka, where's Shirai?" Saten called as their friend drew close to the park bench she was sharing with Uiharu.

"I... don't know. She said to tell you guys she'll join us later then spouted off some gibberish and just disappeared," Misaka answered.

"Oh... should we just wait here then?" Uiharu asked.

"Nah. No need to sit around bored. If she can't find us she can just call..." the electro master stated, "let's go to the arcade or something..."

"... are you okay Misaka-san..." Uiharu asked, her voice filled with worry.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?' the older girl asked, genuinely confused as to the cause of the younger girl's concern.

"Well... last week..." Saten began, her tone matching Uiharu's.

"Oh... Oh..." Misaka said, realizing now what they were talking about, "yeah I'm fine. Sorry for worrying you guys..."

The pair looked at Misaka then smiled, seeing that their friend did indeed seem to be just fine, and not the mask of "just fine" that she had had on for so long, ever since Kuroko's disappearance. She did seem a tad bit worried and stressed out, but that could be attributed to the upcoming cultural day festivities. As fun as the Ichinesei was, it did have a tendency to cause a not insignificant amount of stress in the students. "Hey your festival is tomorrow right?" Saten asked.

"Uh, yeah why?" Misaka responded.

"Awesome, ours isn't until two days from now, so that means we can come and see your guy's cultural festival. Konori's is the day after ours so we can see hers too," Uiharu said then looked away dreamily, "a real Tokiwadai cultural festival... I can't wait."

"I don't think you'll find ours too interesting," Misaka told her, "Tokiwadai's cultural festival is notoriously boring. Last year we had a stupid flower arranging demonstration... I practically fell asleep during it."

"And Uiharu certainly doesn't need any help with that. I can't imagine any arrangement more beautiful than the one she has now," Saten said with a smile directed at the shorter girl.

"mou..." Uiharu sighed having a hard a time as ever staying at her girlfriend, "fine I forgive you. Just please ask before you borrow something next time." upon finishing her sentence the other girl gave her a big hug and a peck on the cheek, eliciting a blush from both of the shorter haired girls.

"Thanks, I promise I will from now on," Saten assured.

Misaka looked at them curiously, "Oh... I borrowed a book a while ago and forgot to return it... or ask to borrow it... Apparently Uiharu had been looking for it for a while and thought she'd lost it... I've been apologizing all morning."

"It's my favorite book," Uiharu stated, "It was a present from my mother and father for my 13th birthday."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me," Saten said to Misaka, both to change the subject and because it did genuinely remind her of the fact, "Your parents are here right?"

"Yeah, they'll be here for the whole cultural festival," She replied.

"I remember meeting your mom," Uiharu recalled, indeed distracted by the new topic, "she was nice."

"My da-" Misaka began but stopped herself quickly, "Otou-san is also here," she corrected, "he's cool too, and much nicer than Kaa-san."

"Wealthy Tokiwadai families, able to afford 2 trips a year to the city, well guess what, we're not losing this time," Saten grinned, "our parents are coming too." She wrapped her arm around Uiharu's shoulder, "Both of ours. They've been petitioning to come every year. They thought they'd be rejected this year but they got accepted at the last minute. And as an apology for the process taking so long their trip is free."

"Really? That's great," Misaka smiled, catching their infectious excitement.

"I can't wait for my parents to meet you two," Uiharu said happily.

The trio began walking and chattering happily away about various things and generally having a good time.

* * *

However nearby was a person who was not having a very good time at all. "Fukou da..." a certain teenager said as he rubbed the spot where an air conditioning unit had hit him on the head after falling from its place in a second story window.

It hadn't been a good week for Touma. In addition to an even stronger streak of bad luck he had been having recently, there was the Ichinasei coming up, something he was completely unprepared for and so was getting in a lot of trouble from Fukiyose and his fellow classmates for being useless to the preparations.

Then, of course, was the general irritation his friends had been feeling about their defeat at the hands of Aleister and his Black Knight. He didn't exactly remember the fight but he had been told about it in detail. He had been quite shocked when that... that teleporter girl who followed Biri-Biri around whose name he could not recall, was a fearsome warrior on the side of Aleister.

He sighed as he thought about Biri-Biri... of all his companions the fight seemed to have upset her the most. He couldn't get a hold of her at all, despite his efforts. He had even visited her dorm but she had barricaded the door. He supposed that being betrayed by one's best friend would do that to a person. The others were just upset from having lost a fight when they were so much more used to winning, and of course upset that Touma, the person who they idolized, trusted, and respected so much had been hurt and defeated. They were way more upset than he was about it.

The only thing he was upset about in regards to the incident was the fact that he couldn't go back and finish the job, having been warned against doing that by that white haired French guy, Lammington or whatever, who had told him of Aleister's mercy towards his friends and warned them that they would not be spared a second time. He gladly would have gone on his own but he was reminded that he could not even get inside the building on his own. It wasn't worth risking everyone's lives for a second attempt all together either, especially when they had been defeated so handily by a single person who was not even their target.

A burning pain shot through his right arm and he remembered the other thing he was upset about. He glanced towards the gloved hand and slowly clenched and unclenched his fingers. Lammington had explained (for the second time in the teenager's life apparently, though he had forgotten the first time, which had occurred when he was far younger, because it had been wiped along with the rest of his memories by the Feathers of Light) what his power was, how it worked, and what had happened. He was a little horrified but he also quite appreciated the new information.

Unfortunately the man had not provided him a method of undoing this newest change... He was glad that it was winter and he had been able to hide it, but Index was getting really suspicious. Having finally recovered from her cold she was as energetic as ever and as curious as Sphynx, not a good combination if you're trying to keep a secret from a person.

He sighed again and continued walking on only to be hit in the face with a lit cigarette as he turned a corner. "Fukou da," he cried out as he rubbed the ash away.

"Oh, Touma, sorry about that, didn't see you there," Stiyl said, surprised by the sudden outburst and appearance of his friend as he leaned against the wall and lit another cigarette.

"Stiyl? What are you doing here?" Touma asked, not expecting to see the fire magician today.

"Smoking," the red haired man provided helpfully.

Touma opened his mouth to say something else when he was suddenly interrupted. "Excuse me," said a voice, deep, accented, and echoing oddly from a fair distance off to the side of the pair, "Would you two happen to be Kamijou Touma and Stiyl Magnus?" The words were spoken in English but something, probably a spell, translated them with only a millisecond of delay into Japanese, creating a sort of layered, almost choral, quality to the words.

They turned around to see the person who was addressing them. He was a fairly tall man, just skirting over 6 foot tall, though the various ornaments in his hair gave him the impression of being a bit taller. His hair itself was a bright red, matching the color of Stiyl's though at the end there was a hint of blackness created from an incomplete dying job, however this perhaps enhanced the effect as it made the hair look as if the tip had been scorched off. The red locks were done up stylistically with feathers and beads and coiled loops and braids. Though this style might look ridiculous on a normal person, on this man the look seemed natural and actually a bit intimidating, as if the styled locks signalled that a great warrior stood in front of you, ready for battle.

The man's skin was a rusty reddish brown color which matched the color of his eyes and signalled that he was not from Japan or any land that Touma had been to actually, the closest that he could think of was the skin tone of some of the Hawaiians he had seen during his battle there.

His outfit was a leather vest with a cut up fringe trailing down below his waist. His legs were clad in matching leather pants that hugged the skin tightly. All along both the pants and the vest were trailing runes etched in a reddish paint flecked with grey specks of asbestos trapped in glass. Runes of control and resistance to the element that the man made his own which allowed the man's clothes to stay intact throughout his battles in order to preserve his modesty. Despite the chilly weather the vest was sleeveless, though this did not seem to bother the man in the slightest.

"Why should we tell you," Stiyl demanded, having a bad feeling about this.

"Yes we are, who are you?" Touma said, having a similar feeling but a less confrontational nature than his tattooed friend.

"Thank you for answering honestly. My "name" as it were is The Sun," the man nodded as he drew two rectangles of paper out of his sleeve, "my card..." he declared as he tossed the pieces of paper towards the pair of boys. They caught the cards and looked them over. The rectangles were painted with a picture. At the top was the Roman numerals "XIX" which was plastered over the "forehead" of a sun with a neutral, but clearly human, face. A row of sunflowers sprung up behind a wall below. In front of the wall an infant was astride a white horse carrying what appeared to be a billowing scarf. Beneath all of that were printed, in English, "The Sun".

"I am a mercenary here to kill you two," he said politely.

"Are you now?" Stiyl huffed as he tossed the card aside adopted a battle stance, "Good luck with that, you'll need it."

"Why do you want to kill us?" Touma asked as he too adopted a stance, "what have we done to you?"

"You've done nothing to me, and I don't want to kill you. Wanting to kill a stranger is something only a madman or a psychopath would feel. Unfortunately there are other things that I do want that require your death as part of them. Since I want those things more than I don't want to kill you, I have resolved to do so even though I don't want to."

This explanation was a bit jarring to Touma, mostly because of the sheer reluctance in The Sun's voice. It was clear he was honest when he said that he didn't want to kill Touma, yet he did not sound as if he was being forced into it, nor did he sound as if he could be talked out of it.

Not that that had ever stopped Touma from trying before. "What could you possibly want that's so important as to justify killing someone over? Whether or not you don't want to kill anyone how can you claim not to be a psychopath and yet try and kill someone you admit to not even knowing?"

"It takes five minutes to die from suffocation. If you really want to know why I'm doing this I'll tell you while I wait for that to happen. Though by the time I'm done the information won't be much use to you..."

"I've heard enough," Stiyl said as he cast the spell he had been preparing while Touma had been talking, "Vampire Killing Cross." He cried out as a ball of flame shot out from his hand. However the flames fizzled halfway between them.

A very cross look spread upon The Sun's face, "there are several civilians, innocent lives, all around! If your attack had missed or if the flames had hit someone you might have killed them! At least be patient enough to wait until I have cleared the area before attempting your futile attack." The Native American sighed as he turned around and summoned several swirling orbs of flame which twisted through the air like flaming tornadoes, striking down in several areas near people. Other spheres of energy shot out to random places in the middle of the air, far from anyone, and exploded, creating a loud sound which, when combined with the intimidating spectacle of the flaming twisters, caused everyone in the immediate vicinity to run away.

As this happened Stiyl launched another magical spell, spreading his rune papers that he used in the summoning ritual for Innocentius.

"Stiyl wait," Touma said, "Let me talk to him, we don't have to fight."

"You can't feel it, the powerful mana that surrounds him... if we wait and let him get in even one strike we're dead, we have to strike first," Stiyl spat out before beginning the chant, "One of the five great elements from which the world is constructed. The great flame of the beginning. It is a light of blessing that raises life and a light of judgment that punishes evil. It is overflowing with calm blessings and with freezing misfortune that destroys cold darkness. Its name is fire and its role is the sword. Be manifested and become the power that eats into my body"

"There we are," said The Sun, as he looked around, "a 200 meter minimum space with mostly inflammable objects save the very pavement upon which we stand." He turned around just in time to see Innocentius rise from the rune papers, a towering behemoth of cleansing fire and death. He chuckled, "flames eh? How quaint. You know... the reason they call me The Sun isn't because of my fire magic... the Sun isn't a big ball of flames after all, despite what some people think. No..." He smiled as a blinding light issued from the air in front of Innocentius as it was swallowed up by a column of blindingly bright swirling energy rose up around him, "The sun is made of plasma. And it is plasma that I command. The power, the accursed power, I need to exert to simply make flames that are **not **hot enough not to ionize the air is beyond anything you are capable of."

"But I suppose some thanks are in order," The sun said with a slight grin as the plasma shifted to wrap around him, obscuring him from view, "it takes heat surpassing ten thousand degrees Celsius to make plasma, I appreciate you getting me halfway there. It is a pity that my objectives prevent me from expressing my gratitude in a proper manner. I shall grant you the privilege of last words and last requests if you so wish, though to be honest I would have granted such anyway."

"How kind," Stiyl remarked sarcastically, "

"Can my request be for you to leave us alone?" asked Touma, hoping against hope that it would be that simple.

"You may, but that is a request I cannot grant," The Sun said, shaking his head.

"Then how about you at least tell me why you're doing this," Touma said, hoping to stall him at the very least.

"Very well, if that is your final request. Shall we call a truce while I fill you in on my background?"

"So you can attack us while our guard is down? Not likely," Stiyl retorted.

"Of the two of us I am the one who has not attacked someone while their back was turned... I believe I am the more trustworthy and honorable one here."

Touma raised his left arm in front of Stiyl with a look that said, "Trust me" on his face. Stiyl nodded in return. If anyone could talk a homicidal maniac out of trying to kill them without a fight being necessary it was Touma. "Fine, we'll agree to the truce." Touma needed more information before doing his "I'll break your illusion" speech and hopefully avoiding the need for a fight.

* * *

"Very well... I was born on a Hopi Tribe reservation in the state of Arizona in the United States of America. We Hopi have long worshipped Tawa, the Sun Spirit, and have thus developed a powerful breed of fire magic which we have used and developed for centuries. As a young boy I trained like all the others. Unfortunately it seems that my connection with magic was too strong. The first time I cast a spell was at six years of age. It was a simple spell to create a tiny little flame, a mere practice for grander spells in the future and a way to measure how far you had come. None of the others my age successfully managed to do so. When I tried however I not only made the small flame but I created a small inferno that burned down the hut we were practising in. The fire spread from the building and began engulfing others. The damage it caused was catastrophic.

"Needless to say I left quickly of my own accord, too afraid of my own powers to stay with the people I cared about. Unfortunately the U.S. Is not a country where a child may wander around without a parent watching over them and I was soon rounded up by the government and placed in foster care. My magic had already been awoken however and without the training and discipline necessary to control it, the flames behaved as flames tend to, spreading out of control, engulfing anything in its path. 3 foster homes and the juvenile detention facility they had put me in for suspected arson all burned down, along with countless other buildings that had gotten caught up in the fires.

I pondered committing suicide to spare anyone else from suffering at my hands but I was too afraid to take my own life, so I simply became a hermit. My people had been living off the land for ages, I had been taught enough to do so. However I had to get away from the United States government who, in their misguided sense of responsibility towards children, would have just put me in another foster home. So I went to Mexico and lived in a small farm, having as little interaction with others as possible as I learned how to control my power better, an endeavour which I am sad to say was not very successful."

"However I was still unsatisfied. I had hurt so many people. It was not truly my fault so I did not believe that I belonged in jail, but I do believe that I should do something to make it up to the people I had hurt... to reimburse them for the damage I caused. However I believed it to be impossible. I had little concept of money but even I knew that I could never hope to get enough cash to pay back the millions I caused in property damage over my lifetime. I had no skills other than my destructive magic."

"it was only a few months ago that the answer came to me in the form of The Star, our leader. He told me that he appreciated and respected my ability, which I always have and always will dislike. He told me of a way I could use that magic, my one skill, to get money... by joining his group of mercenaries."  
"The Hopi people have always been a very peaceful tribe and I did not, do not, like hurting others, so I was hesitant. However it had been a long time since I had seen anyone and this person seemed able to help me control my abilities, so I offered to go with him and at least check out this mercenary group, this Arcana, he was talking about. When I arrived I quickly made friends and soon the place had become home, and my colleagues like family, albeit quite a dysfunctional one... I don't like fighting but I will do so to keep my place in my new home and, one day, to pay back all those people I have hurt with my power."

* * *

"Tha-" Touma began only for a bolt of plasma to shoot from the cocoon that covered The Sun. It shot just in front of the pair then stopped and exploded. The shock wave from the blast sent Stiyl and Touma flying back like paper on the wind.

"I have fulfilled your final request and spent too much time doing so, I shall not waste any more," The Sun stated as another bolt of plasma went flew at the two. Touma, quickly recovering from the last blast, lunged to punch it with his right fist, connecting directly with the glowing ball of energy only to suddenly feel an intense vacuum from the space it had just occupied sending him flying again, forward this time.

"You might be a stranger to me but I do know of you. I know all about your power, and it's limitations. You can dispel any magic but not the effects of said magic. The expanding air from the plasma bolt affects you as well as the vacuum of air left behind when you dispel it," Touma ignored these words and began to charge at The Sun, the blast having drawn him closer to his target. Unfortunately as he got closer he began to sweat as the heat went from, "hot day in Academy City", to "hot day in the Sahara", to "shoved in an oven on a hot day in the sahara". It was too much and Touma needed to fall back or risk passing out from the heat.

"Furthermore the heat created from magical fire, or plasma, is still considered normal heat," The Sun went on to add, "you can't dispel it without touching the plasma itself, and you can't reach it without your body being turned to something ash by the heat." he said as he sent another bolt of plasma, exploding it before it could get within the radius of Touma's arm. Again he went flying back, landing near Stiyl, who had recovered and was thinking of a way to beat this new opponent.

Perhaps if he used his own ability for fire magic to clear a path through the heat... He would need to form a big enough path for Touma to charge through. As he dodged the blasts of the plasma bolts along with Touma he began explaining what he was trying to do. Touma nodded and said that he would finish it up if he could get a clear shot.

So Touma dodged another plasma bolt and charged as Stiyl used his magic, trying to overwhelm The Sun's own mana and dispel the spell, or at least weaken it.

However it seemed to have the opposite effect as a massive wave of hot, expanding air created a substantial explosion, making a huge noise and sending them flying back once more. The heat actually scorched their skin, covering the pair in first degree burns despite the distance.

"It didn't work?" asked Touma, completely ignoring the painful scalding of his skin as he stood back up.

"It did actually, it just... didn't do what I thought it would," Stiyl explained getting back up as well and healing his burns.

"He said that he needs to exert more control in order to make it cooler..." Touma remembered, "so maybe instead of trying to oppose the magic you should try and boost it?" He reasoned as he punched another bolt of plasma, this time bracing himself so he wouldn't be pulled forward by the sudden vacuum.

"Ok, I'll try it," Stiyl said and Touma once again charged forward, weaving amongst the bolts of plasma that were shooting at him even faster than before. Stiyl reinforced the magic spell surrounding The Sun, strengthening The Sun's control and succeeding in holding back the heat this time.

Touma ran forward, unperturbed by the immense heat that still leaked out and made him sweat torrents. He drew nearer and nearer, winding up his punch and preparing to deliver his standard line, when he suddenly tripped as his foot sank into the ground. He broke his fall with his hands only for them to sink in to the liquid asphalt as well, burning the skin further in the process and trapping him.

"There we are, now that you are restrained it is time to do what I mentioned at the beginning," said the Sun as he walked away. A red circle sprung up around him before a circle of flames sprung up. The asphalt around him bubbled and began smoking. The smoke was pushed by the flames towards the center and Touma found himself choking on the toxic fumes while struggling to get out of the bubbling black tar pit he found himself in.

"Now to deal with you," he said as he looked to Stiyl. The tattooed magician looked furious as he began chanting.

The Sun rolled his eyes and sent a blast of fire directly at the magician, plenty enough to turn him to a pile of ash.

* * *

Stiyl took a few steps back as the fire blast faded. His skin was burned black and his shirt, though strengthened against fire, was burned clean off, revealing a torso charred as black as the clothes that he had been wearing.

"Hmmm... it seems I underestimated your power if you managed to survive that..." The native American remarked with a nod, "looks like I'll have to use my plasma after all..." He frowned as he sent a tendril of superheated plasma towards Stiyl, ready to finish him off once and for all.

However another tendril of light and energy shot between them, deflecting the plasma away as if it were disgusted by this interloper.

The Sun raised an eyebrow as he traced the attack back to it's source to see a small girl, no more than 14 or 15 years old, run in front of Stiyl protectively, snakes of lightning emitting from her forehead in an aggressive manner. Soon afterwards two more girls, even younger than the first though not by much, ran out with the first girl, one, with flowers adorning her head, stood beside the first girl while the other went over to the burned magician to see if he was ok. The two girls who had arrived later were wearing matching uniforms, while the third had on something that was clearly a uniform but just as clearly from another school entirely.

"A pyrokinetisist," the flower headed girl said off handedly as she looked at the man, "and a powerful one..." The power level of the man was clearly beyond that of a level 4, perhaps reaching that of a level five considering the quantities of plasma the man could produce.

"I am no pyrokinetisist, I am a fire magician of the Hopi tribe," the man said as he reached inside his vest. Misaka zapped him before he could pull out any sort of weapon but the lightning was diverted harmlessly by the super-conductive plasma. Fortunately he did not pull out a weapon but several pieces of papers which he briefly sorted through, "and you two... are not on the list. However **you** are... miss Misaka Mikoto, level five electro master..." He looked up, "that is your name correct?"

"Yeah, who are you?" She said, glaring between him and the small ring of towering flames with the acrid black smoke billowing from the top. She and the others had been alerted by the big bang a few seconds ago. They had gone towards it only to encounter a wall of flames. It was enough to make her, and the others concerned, but she was even more concerned when she felt, or rather didn't feel, that familiar void of electromagnetism that signalled that Touma was nearby, specifically she could feel him in the ring of flames. She needed to find a way to get him out of there...

"I am The Sun, I am a mercenary sent to kill you. I believe you met my colleague, The Hanged Man, yesterday."

Suddenly it clicked and Misaka hurled another powerful bolt of electricity at him, again to no effect. It was more out of anger than out of an attempt to harm him after all. "So you and him are from the same group?!" she yelled out.

"Yes, but our methods are far different. Anyway as I said I am here to kill you, him, and him," he said, pointing towards Misaka, Stiyl, and Touma respectively. "not you two," he said addressing Saten and Uiharu, "so I would suggest you leave this area quickly."

"We aren't just going to abandon Misaka-san like that. If you want to kill her you'll have to go through me first," Uiharu declared bravely, her arms spread wide.

"Uiharu, please go. Get help or something, I can handle things here," Misaka pleaded her friend, not wanting her to get hurt and eager to accept a bit of mercy if it could save her friends. She had tried to run in before them, she had told them to stay behind, but they hadn't listened and had followed her in here. But this would be too much for them, this guy was powerful, exceptionally so, if he was willing to let them go they should take the offer.

"No way are we just leaving you to fight this alone Misaka-san," Saten said, having determined that Stiyl was far too injured for anything she could do to help. He was either unconscious or in too much pain to even move. If she tried to touch him she would do far more harm than good.

"A very admirable and noble choice. It shows how much you value your friend. I can truly respect that. Unfortunately I am obligated to kill her despite your feelings. And, unless you are far far more powerful than you look, I'm afraid there is nothing you can really do to stop me. She will die either way and I'd prefer if as few people as possible got hurt in the process."

"If you don't want people to get hurt than don't hurt people," Saten shouted. Misaka used the slight distraction to begin floating pieces of metal over to the ring of flames, hoping to smother the fire.

"No no no, It's not that I don't want to hurt people... well I don't **want **to hurt anyone, but the point is that only people on the list of targets **need** to be hurt... I have this thing about collateral damage so I would really appreciate it if you just left. Failing that... I guess I'll just try and work around you..."

A whip of plasma arced up over Uiharu's head, aiming for Misaka, who deflected it with her magnetism before launching a concentrated bolt of lightning. She knew it was futile but she hoped it would distract him while she put out the fire surrounding Touma with sheets of metal ripped off from nearby buildings as she bent one such sheet into a pipe like shape over a nearby fire hydrant, ready to funnel the water towards the flame in case smothering them didn't work.

Unfortunately her distraction wasn't quite distracting enough and The Sun sighed. "You clearly don't understand how hot 10,000 degrees Celsius truly is..." Suddenly the sheets of metal that were laying on top of the flame began glowing red then white before they began bubbling and melting. Then the liquid metal began boiling faster and faster until it had all evaporated. "10,000 degrees is capable of turning any element on earth into a gas two times over. Nothing you have will protect you." He said as he continued lashing out with the whips of plasma. Misaka poured all her power into deflecting them away from her and her friends, but even though she pushed them quite far away the heat they were radiating was still enough to make Misaka sweat torrents.

Uiharu saw this and grabbed hold of Misaka as well as Saten, who she was already holding. The level one used her meager, but currently lifesaving, ability to keep the three of them cool, or at least, not deathly hot.

Misaka was currently too busy to notice as she deflected whip after whip, bolt after bolt, of plasma while trying everything to figure out how to both defeat the man as well as how to save Touma, who was still suffocating. The hydrant hadn't done anything against the super-hot flames, simply splashing into steam without so much as a small shrinkage in the size of the fire.

She'd need to end this quick, she decided. She focused all her remaining power into a lightning bolt aimed at the ground a short distance in front of The Sun's shield of plasma. The shield was parted by the magnetic field and Misaka flipped a coin into the air, hoping that it wouldn't be in the air long enough to melt completely before hitting it's target.

The Sun responded by shooting a bolt of superheated air at the coin, blowing it away with a pop, before shooting a ball of non-plasma fire directly at her. This she could not deflect, she realized as it drew closer.

Suddenly she saw someone jump out in front of her as Uiharu leapt to intercept the flames, holding her arms up like a shield. The flames exploded in a cone, diverted away from the three.

The two girls looked at their friend as she collapsed onto her knees, her arms completely burnt black from the heat.

Saten practically growled as she saw her girlfriend's injuries and stepped out in front. "You hurt Uiharu," she shouted.

"Unintentionally I assure you. I have tried this entire time to work around you but if you jump out in front of my attack what can you really expect to happen. I will not pass up an opportunity to end this battle merely to save your life. You may accidentally die, I apologize profusely if that happens and will ensure you that I will make sure the proper reparations are made, but unless you run it might happen." He said as he prepared another fireball, clearly able to see that one more hit ought to finish them. And by this time Touma would be close to death as well. Things were going quite well considering he had encountered the Imagine Breaker, someone he intended to avoid till the end.

"Now run or die," he gave them their ultimatum. And they responded predictably, not moving an inch, determined to die before they'd abandon their friend. The Sun sighed and said, "so be it..."

* * *

Suddenly a towering inferno crashed into the ground from above, hitting in a spot near Touma's fiery prison. The sudden and powerful vacuum it created pulled the noxious fumes away from him as well as sucking enough of the gloopy molten asphalt into it to disrupt the magical circle and put out the flames.

The Sun furrowed his brow for a second, confused as to how Stiyl still had enough power to create that. Then he saw a shadow descend over them and disappear as soon as it had come. Less than half a second later a massive crash came from behind him. He turned to see a cloud of dust over 30 feet tall. In the shadow they could see naught but the towering silhouette of some sort of creature with glowing red eyes. The silhouette's head opened a massive mouth, revealing rows of teeth the size and shape of scimitars. It breathed in calmly, and all of the plasma which surrounded The Sun began to be sucked towards the cloud of dust and the maw of this mighty shadow beast. Then the eyes flashed downward towards the Native American. The silhouette shifted, the outline of a large clawed hand now visible. The clawed hand darted forward, pinning the red skinned man to the ground as the cloud was dispersed, seeming to grow afraid of the creature it had been shielding and fleeing in panic.

The glowing red eyes of the beast now turned to the three girls and the fire magician standing behind them.

The massive beast opened it's gaping maw and struck with the swiftness of a cobra. Misaka had no time to react before the creature swallowed her and the others in a single bite.

Touma watched in wide eyed horror as the horrible beast devoured his friends. He began pushing against the ground with all his strength, desperate to free himself and fight the beast despite the fact that he was a few seconds from passing out due to asphyxiation and buried in enough asphalt to hold back an elephant on steroids. Completely irreverent to these things it took less than half a second for Touma's black, gloopy prison to begin giving way as he struggled against it. Even an elephant on steroids could not hope to match the sheer strength and determination of Touma when his friends were in danger.

However his strength failed him along with any urgency when the creature spit the four back out again, covered in saliva from their time in the beast's maw. Stiyl had almost fainted in shock

The surprise and confusion that overtook the three girl's was soon overridden by a simple, primal urge. "eewww," they said simultaneously and shivered in pure disgust.

* * *

The next second an oddly familiar voice came from above, "those voices..." Suddenly the three girls, and the other two spectators saw Kuroko's head come into view as she sat up from her perch atop the dragon. "Onee-sama... Saten-san... Uiharu... what are you guys doing here? Wait! Were you fighting just now? Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" She asked, her voice full of concern.

While the three struggled with words at this completely unexpected spectacle they heard another voice. A deep rumble that shook the earth with each syllable and seemed to echo off non-existent mounatins. "There is no need to be concerned. They were burned but my saliva is the best balm known to man. Their burns have already healed and they do not appear to have suffered any other injuries."

"Really? That's good..." Kuroko sighed.

"What's going on here?" Misaka finally managed to ask for what must have been the tenth time that day alone, "What is that thing?"

"It's... a dragon... I think. I might be hallucinating though... If you're seeing a massive golden scaled creature with wings it's a dragon. Otherwise I have no idea what it is," Kuroko explained. Had anyone else said it it might have sounded as if she was mocking Misaka, but Kuroko sounded genuinely unsure.

"A dragon," Uiharu repeated, both surprised, terrified, and intrigued by what she was seeing. She had seen dragons many many times before in games but seeing one up close... that was impossible wasn't it?

"Why are you riding it, what is it doing here?" Saten asked,finding that she was surprisingly accepting of the fact that there was a mythological creature in front of her, but still curious as to why it was there, and why Kuroko of all people was on top of it.

"I'm not riding him I'm guiding him. He didn't know where The Sun would be so I needed to tell him. As for what he's doing here... Well dragons are immune to fire so I figured he'd be the best person to face The Sun didn't I tell Misaka that... oh... I said it in Spanish again didn't I... What I said was that I was going to La Mancha in Spain to get Roque to help fight against The Sun," She explained then gently patted the head of the massive beast upon which she sat, "This is Roque by the way."

"A pleasure to meet you," the beast rumbled in it's deep bass tone.

"I offered to show him around the city in exchange for his help, I planned to have our little talk while I did that in order to offer up some evidence of my claims. While I didn't expect you to get involved in the fight," Kuroko huffed with a disapproving glance at the three, "as long as you aren't hurt I don't see why we can't continue with that plan." At her cue Roque lowered his head so that it was touching the ground and tilted his ear towards the ground to form a sort of ramp for them to climb, "climb on."

"What about..." Misaka trailed off as she glanced at Stiyl, who was still frozen in shock at seeing the dragon, and Touma who was still waist deep in ever thickening asphalt.

"The demon and his lackey will be fine," Kuroko remarked with a deep frown, "special forces will be here to clean up this mess soon. So forget about them and climb on up."

Uiharu was the first to walk up to the dragon and climb up the ear of it onto it's head. This was partially because she was most used to taking orders from Kuroko and partially because she was extremely excited to be able to touch a real life dragon. Saten followed out of both curiosity and a natural tendency to follow Uiharu. Misaka was the last one, still hesitant over the whole thing, but figuring that she might as well try and trust Kuroko here.

"Now then," Kuroko said as Roque straightened his head, the sudden lurch not upsetting the four girls seating at all, "let's be off."

"Umm... Shirai-san... won't it cause a panic? A dragon wandering around the city?" Uiharu spoke up as the voice of reason.

The excited look on Kuroko's face fell immediately, "oh... I... I didn't think of that..." She said, "To be honest I didn't think it would be an issue. I was 95% sure this was a hallucination..." She sat in thought for a second before a look of inspiration crossed her face, "Ninjas!" she exclaimed apparently out of nowhere as a piece of paper appeared in her hand. She pressed it against Roque's scales. Since she was Shiro she couldn't activate it but Roque understood and poured his mana into the charm. All of a sudden a black mist surrounded his form. "There we are," Kuroko declared, "let's go."

"Huh, what did you do?" asked Saten as she stared at the black mist suspiciously.

"Ninja cloaking spell, it prevents people from seeing something that they aren't specifically looking for." Kuroko explained as the dragon took to the air, hopping on top of a nearby building. Despite the speed of impact the blow was equivalent to a gentle breeze, nor did the surge of speed unbalance the riders.

"So... I should start from the beginning shouldn't I... A fair warning though. I genuinely have no idea what parts of what stories are real or imagined. Because of that it would be best to tell you generalities rather than specific stories. So let's just start off with what I am." Kuroko began, turning around and looking at the others who returned her gaze with curious expressions.

"My primary title is "The Black Knight", and I serve as... well as a knight really; going off to fight evildoers for my liege lord in order to protect the innocents of the city and the world."

"Liege lord?" Uiharu asked.

"Evildoers?" Misaka repeated with a raised eyebrow, remembering that Touma and herself had once fallen under this category in Kuroko's eyes.

Amazingly it was Misaka that was ignored this time. "I use the term liege lord because it fits better with the whole knight thing, but in reality I just mean the leader of the city, Aleister-sama. He tells me where to go and what to do and I do it. Kind of halfway between a secret agent and a superhero," she boasted, "I've even saved the world a few times. Though one of those times is probably a hallucination... not sure. Anyway that's why, one of the reasons why, I couldn't tell you about this before. Technically what I do is top secret... so you all have to promise not to tell anyone... not that most people would believe you..."

"I know what you mean... I'm stilling haviii-eeeek!" Uiharu cried out as the dragon began scaling a building, walking along it's surface as if it were the ground instead of a vertical wall. It's riders were now horizontal as well, eliciting that shriek from Uiharu, who was suddenly very afraid she was going to fall off.

"Don't worry, Roque has control over gravity as well as fire," Kuroko assured them.

"I can understand why you thought we wouldn't believe you... I'm looking at a dragon and I'm still having a tough time accepting magic," Saten, a little braver but still quite frightened, spoke up.

"Don't accept it, it doesn't exist," Kuroko stated.

The dragon stopped suddenly, "Should a magician riding a dragon really be making that claim." He mused, entertained by her denial of reality.

"A schizophrenic magician," Kuroko reminded him, "I'm supposed to see and do things that aren't real, doesn't mean I have to believe in them as well, I know they're illusions."

"Kuroko... I'm pretty sure this isn't an illusion..." Misaka sighed, "can you just continue. You still haven't explained much..."

"Oh, sorry... Well to be honest I'm not exactly sure what else to say..."

"How about telling us where you've been for the past couple months," Uiharu suggested, with a hint of hurt in her voice.

"Ok," Kuroko nodded, hearing the hurt in her friends voice, "but first... I got you two a present, to say sorry for worrying you with my absence."

"A present?" Saten repeated.

"Yep... you see in addition to secret agent stuff I also have a few political roles. You see... I'm on the board of directors as well. And it just so happens that it's the board who gets to decide which visiting petitions are accepted. I pulled a few strings and... well I'm sure you've already heard the rest of it."

The two looked at the teleporter with widened eyes. "You did that?" Kuroko nodded and soon the girls leapt forward and hugged her. "thank you!" they said in unison.

Kuroko looked at Misaka, her eyes inviting. Misaka hesitated a second but took the invitation after a little while and hugged the other three.

Once they had separated Uiharu changed her glance from a happy to a stern one in seconds flat. "You still have to tell us where you've been."

"Ahh, yeah... I already told you actually," Kuroko began, her voice seeped with remembered pain that just got worse with each word, "I was stupid and misunderstood something that really affected me. I didn't really want to live any more, so I just gave up and was in a coma for about a month. I don't really know what happened during that month. I gave control of my body to Kuro but... because of reasons she was indisposed and so couldn't contact you. After that... something happened and Kuro kind of gave it up as well. I kind of just... did whatever I could, trying my hardest to die so I wouldn't have to deal with the pain any more. The war with Russia was going on so I had plenty of opportunities. Unfortunately I'm really really bad at dying, or at least it was unfortunate at the time... looking back on it I'm pretty lucky. Anyway, I don't really remember much of what happened. The last thing I remember is the fight in the windowless building. A whole bunch of terrorists were attempting to assassinate Aleister-sama. I managed to defeat them but in the process I kind of died, but Aleister and Az made me better again. I don't really understand how, but yeah..."

"Shirai-san..." Uiharu began, her voice full of sympathy for the hurt that her friends story dripped with. Misaka just hugged her again, crushed by her own guilt

"But who cares," Kuroko said, brightening up and returning Misaka's hug, patting the older girl on the back in a comforting manner, "it's in the past... I'm all better now. No more pain, just the same old Kuroko you've always known... in fact, all things considered, I'm probably even better off now than before. So please don't worry about me any more."

The four friends shared another hug, "only if you promise never to leave us like that again..." Saten declared.

"I promise," Kuroko assured them, adding only in her mind 'no matter what I will not let anyone take this happiness away from me again... and if anyone tries I will show them pain unlike any other...'

* * *

Between the Lines: 2 (I'll add this soon but I'd like to just get the chapter out for now)

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is late. My muse just wasn't there for a while... and it was a hard chapter to write anyway... It might actually be the first of many to be late, given that my workload is increasing.

This chapter is the first of many to feature bits and pieces from Touma's perspective. I'm not too confident about these parts since I haven't really watched Index and thus don't have the best sense of his character... but the way I figure it he's a classic shonen hero, like Hayate from Hayate no Gotoku except a little more stupid and headstrong. If, however, you think that I did not do a good job I implore you to write me a review or a PM stating how I can improve for next time since, as I said, Touma will be a bigger part of this book (since he's the main target) and I don't want him to be poorly written all throughout.

* * *

Dedications: This one goes out to all my new readers who are just now getting up to this point. I wish I could list you by name but without reviews and favorites it's a little hard to do so...

* * *

Coming Soon:"It is not something one as naïve as yourself can possibly understand," He sighed as he squeezed the trigger, sending the shots tearing through Index's head, and, combined with the shaking of the collapsing building, causing the chair she was still tied to to tumble out of the skyscraper and collide heavily with the ground below.


End file.
